RI beats ‘blundering’ France
Indonesia drew 2-2 with France on Saturday to wrap up an overall 9.5-6.5 victory in a classical chess showdown in the fourth and final day of the Makita Women’s Chess Tournament at the Sekolah Catur Utut Adianto (SCUA) in Bekasi, West Java.
The tournament featured blitz, rapid and classical chess games, with each member of the four-person Indonesian team squaring off against each member of the four-person French team in separate matches.
The victory was hailed as an outstanding performance by local young players who bounced backed from a 3-1 defeat in the blitz to secure a 10-6 win in rapid chess before booking a convincing victory in the classical games.
In Saturday’s matches, the win for Indonesian team was solidified by Irene Kharisma, a Women’s Grandmaster, who stopped France’s Mathilde Congiu after 56 moves.
“Mathilde blundered in the 26th move. She was not aware that Irene had by then been plotting a combined entrapment,” chess observer and SCUA director Kristianus Liem told The Jakarta Post.
Irene opted to exchange her rook for a knight in compensation, leaving her a pawn up, an advantage that the 20-year-old successfully converted to a win.
The French team pegged the score at 1-1 after Nino Maisuradze defeated Chelsie Monica Sihite. The other two games, which matched Dewi Citra against Natacha Bensmesbah and Medina Warda Aulia against Sophie Milliet, ended in draws.
Kristianus singled out the performance of 15-year-old Medina as superb, collecting 7.5 of a possible 8 points.
“Medina is super. She only drew with Sophie [Milliet],” Kristianus said. Milliet, with 2405, held the highest Elo-rating among the eight players. Medina’s Elo-rating is 2313.
The event, which was held to mark the completed renovations of the SCUA building, also featured a simultaneous chess contest, featuring former women’s world champion Hou Yifan against 21 chess enthusiasts.
Hou has traveled to several Southeast Asian countries as a FIDE international chess federation envoy to develop chess in the region. This is an initiative that was created by WOM (the FIDE commission for women’s chess).
The Indonesian team will now preparing to take part in the Hastings tournament in the UK on Dec. 26, where Medina is expected to attain a WGM (Women’s Grandmaster) title.
Chelsie and Citra will join her, as will Farid Firmansyah and Susanto Megaranto in the men’s category.
Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com
They took the other team for granted?