Irene grabs first Grandmaster norm

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 04/21/2008 12:54 PM  |  Headlines

IRENE KHARISMA SUKANDAR (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)

Indonesia chess star Irene Kharisma Sukandar took a giant stride in drawing her final round of the Japfa Chess Festival against the Woman Grandmaster Jana Krivec of Slovenia, allowing her to gain a first Grandmaster norm.

With the newly acquired norm, the Woman International Master holder put herself on the passage to becoming the first Indonesian Woman Grandmaster.

The 16-year-old Irene still needs two norms to put her name in the country's history books.

"Thank God. This is really a miracle because it's just beyond my expectations," she told The Jakarta Post.

"My chance (to win the game) was slim, but I am sure she would have found it difficult to win too," she said. "I was prepared if she (Krivec) refused to draw."

Irene proposed a draw to Krivec after chief arbiter Sebastian Simanjuntak notified her during the last-round match that she only needed 0.5 points to get a Grandmaster norm.

The arbiter announced earlier that Irene had needed 6.5 points to earn the Grandmaster norm, but he later revised the required points to 6 points due to a miscalculation.

"We just found that we had underrated the tournament's Elo rating average of 2,317, or lower than the actual rate of 2,332," Sebastian said, adding that with the higher level of the contest, Irene only needed 6 points instead of 6.5 to get a Grandmaster norm.

Irene earned a total of 6 points from four draws and four wins in the 10-round contest, with 0.5 points she garnered from the last-match draw with Krivec on the 24th move.

"I hope this achievement can encourage me to work harder."

Irene's win came only a month after she missed the chance of claiming the norm during the Cup of Rector International tournament in Ukraine when she bagged 6 points from nine-round matches, just one point away from the norm.

During the six-day Japfa Chess Festival, Woman Grandmaster Li Ruofan of Singapore topped the leaderboard with 7 points and brought home a winner's purse of US$1,500.

Ruofan said from the overall matches she was impressed with the performance of Filipino Catherine Perena, who claimed her Woman International Master title in the tournament with 4.5 points.

"She (Perena) is a strong player who always fights. I was just lucky when I beat her in the sixth round," she told the Post.

Trailing in the second place was Regina Pokorna of Slovakia with 6.5 points, while Irene was in third place, followed by Krivec, Perena and Woman FIDE Master Thanda Aye Win of Myanmar.

In another match Sunday, local Grandmaster Susanto Megaranto had to bow out for the fourth time to the world's youngest Grandmaster Wesley So of the Philippines.

Susanto drew Wesley on move 57 of their last-round match to garner two points from six rounds. (ind)

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