Women's GM Stefanova's might prevails
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Grand Master (GM) Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria continued her domination of local players, with International Master (IM) Danny Juswanto being the latest victim in the sixth round of the Wismilak International Chess Tournament in Surabaya, East Java, on Thursday.
To compound Indonesia's woeful performance, Stefanova, the only woman competing in the US$6,000 tournament, played the black pieces in defeating Danny.
The European champion stopped Danny, who is regarded as the country's second best player after GM Utut Adianto, in 53 moves in more than three-and-a-half hours, Antara reported.
Other Indonesians who have already fallen to Stefanova include Susanto Megaranto in the second round, Irwanto Sadikin in the fourth and Edhi Handoko in the fifth.
Stefanova stayed at the top of the standings with 5.5 points from six matches. The only player who has been able to hold her to a draw was Enrique Paciencia of the Philippines in the third round.
"She cleverly varies her play. Looking back at her third-round match against Paciencia, we see that her position could have been a losing one. But she managed to force a draw," chess columnist Kristianus Liem said.
Regarding Danny's performance, Kristianus said: "Danny has been playing quite well, but against Stefanova he did not appear able to find the headway for a breakthrough. She just deserved the win."
The defeat has placed Danny's hope of rising up to the title of grand master in danger, if not completely out of reach, according to Liem.
"With only three points, Danny must win all of his remaining five games to attain the grand master title," he said. "That looks impossible given the strong opposition from the likes of Irwanto, Edhi and Zaw Win Lay of Myanmar."
The immediate task for Danny is figuring out how to score six points to avoid his current rating of 2520 being cut at tournament's end.
The complete results from Round Six: Susanto Megaranto (2364) vs FM Irwanto Sadikin (2362) 0-1; GM Edhi Handoko (2431) vs IM Paciencia (2483) 0.5-0.5; IM Danny Juswanto (2520) vs GM Antoaneta Stefanova (2497) 0-1; GM Zaw Win Lay vs IM Nay Oo Kyaw Tun 0.5-0.5; IM Cerdas Barus (2456) vs FM Hamdani Rudin (2376) 1-0; Cecep Kosasih (2422) vs GM Ardiansyah (2411) 0-1
The provisional standings after six rounds (Indonesian unless stated otherwise): 1. GM Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) 5.5 pts 2. GM Zaw Winlay (Myanmar) 4 pts 3. FM Irwanto Sadikin 4 pts 4. Cerdas Barus 4 pts 5. Edhi Handoko 3.5 pts 6. Danny Yuswanto 3 pts 7. GM Ardiansyah 3 pts 8. Susanto Megaranto 2.5 pts 9. Nay Oo Kyaw Tun (Myanmar) 2 pts 10. Enrique Paciencia (Philippines) 2 pts 11. Hamdani Rudin 1.5 pts 12. Cecep Kosasih 1 pts.