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Tiviakov top draw at JAPFA chess tournament
Sergei Tiviakov
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Sergei Tiviakov. courtesy of The Chess Connections
Five Indonesian chess players are set to take on five foreign opponents in the ninth JAPFA Grandmaster Tournament starting next week in Jakarta.
Local participants include Grand Master (GM) Cerdas Barus (2392), International Master (IM) Denny Juswanto (2402), IM Farid Firman Syah (2397), IM Tirta Chandra Purnama (2380) and FIDE Master (FM) Muhammad Lutfhi Ali (2336).
GM Sergei Tiviakov of the Netherlands will be the top seed in the tournament with him holding an elo-rating of 2651.
The other four visitors are GM Suat Atalik of Turkey (2562), IM Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy of Vietnam (2474), IM Kiriil Kuderinov of Kazakhstan (2448) and IM Rolando Nolte of the Philippines (2417).
The tournament is part of the annual JAPFA Chess Festival, which is entering its ninth edition this year, featuring three competitions.
The other two competitions are a matchup of two women's players and a national tournament, divided into 11 categories.
The matchup will pit Indonesia's young star, Woman Grand Master (WGM) Medina Warda Aulia, 17, against Hungarian WGM Ticia Gara, 30.
Medina is Indonesia's youngest player to attain a WGM title, breaking Irene Kharisma Sukandar's record. Medina has also surpassed Irene as Indonesia's number one women's player as of April 1 with her now scoring a rating of 2322, against Irene's 2319.
Kristianus Liem, an official of the Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) in charge of developmental affairs, said that the event would provide national players with a chance to increase their experience.
'This is an international chess festival that will hold 3 competitions: The Grandmaster Tournament, Woman's Chess Match and the national tournament,' Kristianus told a press conference on Wednesday.
Agus Mulyono, the spokesman of title sponsor JAPFA Comfeed, said that during its nine-year existence, the tournament had become one of the events that could help nurture interest among Indonesian chess players, having been boosted recently by the national team's convincing performance in the Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games).
'Chess brought home five gold medals from the recent SEA Games, it is one of the events where we won the most gold medals,' he said.
The Indonesian chess team, which comprised 10 players, also brought home four silver and seven bronze medals, the most medals the team had ever collected during its participation in the last four SEA Games. In the past, the team's most successful achievement was bringing how a single gold medal.
'This kind of tournament will help improve the players' experience and development,' said Kristianus.
For Tiviakov, this will be his second time competing in the tournament.
'I first competed [in the tournament] in 1997. I'm happy to be invited again this year. I hope this event will help to improve level of Indonesian players,' he said.
During his stay prior to the tournament, Tiviakov also held a three-day training camp for players who will be representing Indonesia at the Chess Olympiad, which will be held in Tromso, Norway in August.
There are 10 players in total that are set to compete at the Olympiad namely Susanto Megaranto, Farid, Luthfi Ali, and two junior players Jodi Setiaki and Novendra Triasmoro, both just 15 years old, as well as are Irene, Medina, Chelsie Monica Ignesias Sihite, Dewi AA Citra and Ummi Fisabilillah.
