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AKARTA: The country's promising chess squad for the Asian Games, the Woman Grandmaster (WGM) Irene Kharisma Sukandar and the Grandmaster (GM) Susanto Megaranto, will be challenged at the upcoming 5th JAPFA Chess Festival, where they will be duelling against prominent opponents of India and Georgia.

At the JAPFA Chess Festival running from April. 14-19 in Jakarta, Irene (2316) will have four-round duels against WGM Tania Sachdev (2393) of India, the country of origin of many top world-class chess players, while Susanto (2527) will play six-round duels against GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili (2634) of Georgia.

"We expect to see significant progress from both Irene and Susanto after their coaching periods with GM Ruslan Scherbakov of Russia since February," Indonesian Chess Association (PERCASI) head of league Utut Adianto said Monday to announce the festival, which will feature 12 events, including international duels, juniors, and common-player competitions.

"Technically, Irene and Susanto are slightly below their opponents," said Utut. In the final ranking crosstable after nine rounds at the Kuala Lumpur Open in Malaysia, which ended Monday, Susanto ranked fourth or two levels up from his starting rank, while Mchedlishvili ranked third. Meanwhile, at the same tournament, Irene finished 30th or nine levels above her previous rank.