Indonesia excels at Chess Olympiad
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Sports | Thu, August 07 2014, 12:51 PM
The Indonesian women’s chess team put in a stunning performance at the Chess Olympiad in Tromso, Norway, by sweeping their first four matches with 10th-seed Armenia being their latest victim on Tuesday.
The win followed an earlier shocking upset of sixth-seed Romania the day before, while the other two wins came at the expense of lower-rated opponents, the Dominican Republic and Wales.
The Indonesian team is comprised of Woman Grand Master (WGM) Irene Kharisma Sukandar (who has a World Chess Federation, or FIDE, rating of 2396), WGM Medina Warda Aulia (2397), Woman International Master (WIM) Chelsie Monica Sihite (2206), Woman FIDE Master (WFM) Dewi AA Citra (2128) and WFM Ummi Fisabilillah (2029),
They moved to second place behind top-seeded China, above second-seed Russia and third-seeded Ukraine on the provisional standings among 136 participating countries. The tournament, which runs from Aug. 1 to 14, also plays an open category that features 150 teams — mostly men’s teams.
After easy wins over Dominica and Wales, both of which Indonesia pounded 4-0, the first true test came in the third round against Romania, which offered up International Master (IM) Corina-Isabela Peptan (2422), IM Cristina-Adela Foisor (2404), WGM Alina l’Ami (2446) and WGM Elena-Luminita Cosma (2327).
“As a team only seeded 23rd, we would not boast about beating Romania, which is seeded sixth,” team manager Kristianus Liem was quoted as saying in a media release about the team’s mood during the lead-up to the third-round match.
“Given the opponent’s lineup we were anxious, but it did not mean we were overawed,” he said.
Indonesia’s young players proved their worth against the more experienced Romanians.
“Medina was outstanding over Foisor and Chelsie was equally remarkable over l’Ami. Irene drew with Peptan. It was only Citra who lost her game to Cosma,” Kristianus said.
Indonesia continued its winning streak over Armenia, which fielded Grand Master (GM) Elina Danielian (2490), IM Lilit Mkrtchian (2453), IM Lilit Galojan (2275) and WGM Maria Kursova (2313).
Irene, Chelsea and Citra won over Danielian, Mkrtchian and Kursova respectively, while Medina, being two pawns down, survived the pressure to eke out a draw with Galojan.
Kristianus attributed his players’ confident performances to well-planned six-month training workout under four trainers.
The training included a one-month outing to Russia and tryouts in the Czech Republic and Bulgaria.
The Indonesian men’s team, which is comprised of GM Megaranto Susanto, IM Farid Firmansyah, Muhammad Lutfi Ali, Novendra Priasmoro and Jodi Setyaki Azarya, placed 38th in the open category after taking three wins over Congo, Tajikistan and the International Physically Disabled Chess Association (IPCA) and a loss to Belarus.
They took on Brazil in the fifth round on Wednesday while the women’s team challenged China.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/07/indonesia-excels-chess-olympiad.html
Way to go Indonesia.