Tirta, Surya, Gerhana record wins at chess meet
Tirta, Surya, Gerhana record wins at chess meet
Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesian teenaged chess hopefuls Tirta Chandra, Surya Wahyudi
and Gerhana won both their matches in their respective age
categories at the Junior ASEAN Championship in Kuala Lumpur on
Wednesday.
Tirta, who is playing in the under-18 boy's category, beat Goh
Wei Ming in his first game and Marcus Chan in his second game
Wednesday. Two matches a day have been played since competition
began Monday.
Surya, in the U-12 boy's field, chalked up his wins at the
expense of Chan Lit Bin and Tan Wee Meng, while Gerhana, in the
girls' U-8 category, proved too strong for Singaporeans Neo Xin
Wen and Sia Xin Die.
Tirta is in joint-first position with 5 points from five win
and one loss at the hands of Vietnamese co-leader Vu Dinh Hung in
the third round. Hung lost last night.
The ASEAN meet features 226 players -- 158 boys and 68 girls
-- from six countries: Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar,
Singapore and Vietnam.
The Asian competition is being held with participants coming
from Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and with competitors
invited from Australia.
Indonesia has come to the tournament with 11 boys and four
girls, all given a briefing on Tuesday by Grand Master Utut
Adianto and Indonesian Chess Association executive director Eka
Putra Wirya.
Other players ending the day with double wins included
Ivansky, Irene Karisma, Boy Reinhard, and Kevin Gautama.
Taufik Halay and Mohamad Ansar won their first games, and had
yet to complete their second.
The only Indonesian in contention is Evi Lindiawati in the
girls' U-16. She got mixed results on Wednesday, beating Dinh Thi
Quynh of Vietnam but losing to Dinara Tuiti Bayeva of Kazakhstan.
Utut, whose Kuala Lumpur trip was also to attend the one-day
chess seminar, was reported to be generally satisfied with the
players' performance. "Utut sees some of them, especially Tirta
and Aris, as having good prospects of winning the competition,"
team manager Nike Setiawati told The Jakarta Post.
The competition continues with two rounds on Thursday and the
final round Friday. The team would return to Jakarta on Saturday,
Nike said.