Teenage Evie records two victories to lead Anniswati Cup

Teenage Evie records two victories to lead Anniswati Cup

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Top female chess player Evie Lindiawati pulled one point clear at
the top after winning another two games in the Anniswati Cup here
on Thursday.

Sixteen-year-old Evie beat Stefani Dian and Amalia Andra in
the second and third rounds respectively to collect an overall
three points in the provisional standings. She defeated Tuti
Rahayu on Wednesday.

Five players followed with two points each, including two
international master holders in the tournament: Upi Darmayana
Tamin and Lisa Lumongdong.

After winning their respective games in the second round, Upi
and Lisa, both former national team members in the Chess
Olympiad, played out draws in the third round, which were their
second draws.

The other three with two points each were Amalia, Yulianti
Tjindarbumi and Norasa Verdiana.

Evie, who along with Upi has been awarded an automatic berth
in the national team for the next Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in
Vietnam, was involved in a 57-move Scott game before stopping
Amalia in their third round tie. She capitalized on the advantage
of being one pawn ahead to round off the endgame in a victory.

The tournament, which will continue until Tuesday, was to have
featured 14 women's players, but Ai Zakiah, who was granted a
wild card for being the 2002 national champion, failed to turn
up.

"Ai did not play in the first three rounds. We now have 13
participants in the tournament. As we have fixed pairings with 14
players, each round must involve gifting a win to every player
paired with Ai," Hendry Jamal, from the organizing committee,
told The Jakarta Post.

The Anniswati Cup is one of the four selection fields planned
by the Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) for the formation
of a national team for the Vietnam meet in December.

The eight players who are expected to emerge from the whole
series will undergo a mini-competition to fight for four places
on the team.