Taufik comes 7th in world chess c'ships
Taufik comes 7th in world chess c'ships
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's Taufik Hallai failed to grab a silver medal and had to be satisfied in the 7th place in the world youth chess championships at Cannes, France which ended Thursday.
Taufik's final total was 7.5 Victory Points following his defeat against Iljin Artiom of Russia in the final round. He lost on the 36th move after an Indian Nimzo opening.
Taufik was competing in the championship's 10-years-of-age category.
Fellow Indonesian Susanto Megaranto, who was also competing in the same age category, recorded 7.5 VP after he defeated Eduard Valenau of Rumania on the 34th move after using the Caro-Kann defense.
Susanto's victory placed him 8th among the 11 players.
FIDE Master Alavi Moghaddom of Iran won the category without losing a match. He scored 9.5 VP from eight wins and three draws.
Alavi took the gold medal while Fide Master Radjabov Teimour took the silver with 8.5 VP and Wang Yue of China the bronze with 8.0 VP.
Three players had the same score as Wang but the Chinese won the bronze through the tie-break counting system. The other players were Davitt Baramidze (Georgia), Gabor Papp (Hungary) and Iljin.
Evgeny Tomasveski (Russia), Gawain Jones (England) and Raouf Memedof (Ajerbaizan) were ninth, tenth and eleventh respectively.
Kristianus Liem, the Indonesian team's assistant manager, said Thursday that Taufik played well but Iljin was a better player.
"Taufik made a blunder on the 20th move when he sacrificed his pawn. This error enabled Iljin to put Taufik under pressure until the 36th move," Kristianus said.
Kristianus praised both Taufik and Susanto's good performances. "Taufik and Susanto showed that they could play well against the top players. For us, this is already good."
Taufik himself did not show any disappointment over his loss but instead said he was happy to have played in France where he could meet top chess players.
"Through this championships, I have made a lot of friends. The only thing I had difficulty with is communicating with them," Tafuk said. Among the people he became close with were Radjabov, Dorian Vicol (Moldova) and Alavi.
Alavi presented a calculator and a doll to Taufik and Radjabov gave him a leather wall decoration.
Taufik said that after the championships, he would study further and improve his play. "I have gained much from the championships which I will analyze, and improve my technique."
In the 11-years-of-age category, Evie Lindiawati drew with Vitcoria Baskite of Estonia, and Bagas Prama Ananta, in the 14- years-of-age category, drew with Libenson Lisandro of Sweden.
Evie ended with 5.5 VP and Bagas with 5.0 VP. Both were ranked 30th in their respective categories.
The four Indonesian junior players are scheduled to return to Indonesia tomorrow evening. (lnt)