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Players shaping up before trip to Norway
Members of the national chess team are expected to make the most of their time at the ongoing Japfa Chess Festival as part of their preparations for the Chess Olympiad in Norway in August
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embers of the national chess team are expected to make the most of their time at the ongoing Japfa Chess Festival as part of their preparations for the Chess Olympiad in Norway in August.
'It's a very good tournament to gain experience and make improvements,' the national team's head coach, Ruslan Scherbakov, told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the sixth-round matches in the international grandmaster category on Wednesday.
Indonesia's players bound for Norway comprises Susanto Megaranto, Farid Firman Syah, Muhammad Luthfi Ali, Jodi Setiaki and Novendra Triasmoro in the men's team, and Irene Kharisma, Media Warda Aulia, Chelsie Monica Sihite, Dewi Citra and Umi Fisabilillah in the women's team.
The 44-year-old Russian national, Scherbakov, praised the team's overall performance for being good in the face of strong opposition in the annual chess tournament, which features some 500 players split into 14 match categories.
'Chelsie drew with Susanto. Medina is leading against her opponent,' Scherbakov said.
Chelsie, who is competing in the open category, collected 3.5 points after four rounds. She won her opening three rounds before forcing Susanto, Indonesia's number one player, to a draw.
Dewi Citra recovered from an opening loss to secure three consecutive wins to amass a total of three points.
Media led Ticia Gara of Hungary 2-1 in their Women's Chess Match after three of six rounds had been played.
Luthfi and Farid are playing in the grandmaster tournament, which features five foreign and five domestic players.
'Luthfi has had some tough games. He is learning to play a good positional game,' Scherbakov said.
Luthfi struggled on 1.5 points, while Farid rose to the top position on 3.5 points after five rounds, alongside top seed GM Sergey Tiviakov of the Netherlands and GM Suat Atalik of Turkey.
Farid bounced back from a loss to Danny Juswanto in the fourth round to beat the more experienced GM Cerdas Barus in the fifth round.
'Farid is playing very well. She should not lose to Danny,' Scherbakov, who first began coaching in Indonesia in 2010, said.
He said the team would be playing three tournaments in Europe before heading to Norway.
Speaking about the team's prospects in Norway, he said the women's team had a better chance of high achievement that the men's team.
'We may push them into a top-20 position,' he said, referring to the women's team. 'In the men's division, however, there are many strong teams.'
Indonesia's women finished in 46th place out of 131 teams at the last Olympiad in Istanbul in 2012, while the men's team ended up in 67th out of 168 teams.
Scherbakov, who is assisted by Ruslan Khusnutdinov from Kazhakstan and Andrey Kovalev from Belarus, said the players needed to develop their battling spirit.
He said they still tended to lack the courage to pile on the pressure when facing higher-rated opponents.
