Tirta gains entry to Gunadarma chess meet
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Tirta Chandra is the latest player to be included in the 15- strong list for the eight-day Gunadarma Cup 'elo-rating' chess tournament, which kicks off here on Monday.
The inclusion of 16-year-old Tirta means that the players' average for the tournament will be only 2341, resulting in it being relegated from the planned five-tier to a four-tier event.
"We wish Salor (Sitanggang) had been available for the competition. Then we could have maintained the ranking," Mukmin Panggabean from the organizing committee said on the sidelines of the National Chess League here on Sunday.
Salor is one of the few Indonesian International Master (IM) title holders.
Despite its drop in ranking, the tournament, according to Mukmin, remains a FIDE-sanctioned event, able to provide an IM result (IMR) for the players who manage to score at least ten points. FIDE is the world chess governing body.
The contenders will play a round-robin competition in 14 rounds.
Tirta's participation means he has joined his junior teammate Susanto Megaranto in the tournament with the rest of the field being made up of senior players.
Among the participants are Grand Master (GM) Cerdas Barus, GM Ruben Gunawan, GM Ardiansyah and GM Edhi Handoko. Edhi is Tirta and Susanto's mentor in the Japfa Chess Club.
Other contenders include Yoseph Majella, Nurdin Askali, Anjas Novita, Kasmiran, Iwan Prihastomo, Johan Gunawan, Maksum Firdaus, Tirto and Hanny Marentek.
Meanwhile, Edhi collected 8 points from nine games in two days to win the seventh stage of the National Chess League at the Tanah Abang Chess Center, which ended here on Sunday.
He was followed by Maksum Firdaus and Cornelis Purba, who amassed 7.5 and 7 points respectively.
Susanto, who had led the league until stage 6 last month, was absent during the two day's of matches due to illness.
The league will play its last stage next month with 24 top players in the master category and 8 in the non-master category qualifying for the grand final in early April.