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Sean moves closer to attaining GM title
Grandmaster wannabe: Sean Winshand Cuhendi (left) of Indonesia plays against Sergei Tiviakov in the 10th round of the Japfa Grandmaster Tournament in Jakarta on Tuesday
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span class="inline inline-center">Grandmaster wannabe: Sean Winshand Cuhendi (left) of Indonesia plays against Sergei Tiviakov in the 10th round of the Japfa Grandmaster Tournament in Jakarta on Tuesday.JP/Awo
Young Indonesian chess player Sean Winshand Cuhendi moved one step ahead in his chase for a grandmaster (GM) title after scoring the required points in nine rounds of 11 at the Japfa International Grandmaster Tournament on Tuesday.
The 18-year-old player beat Rogelio Antonio Jr. of the Philippines in the ninth round to earn 6.5 points, which is the minimum mark required according to tournament regulations for a player to obtain a GM norm.
The tournament has two rounds to complete, but a loss for Sean would not dent his GM norm collection.
Sean's achievement was confirmed by tournament arbiter Bunawan Bong.
'I have already established a chart in which a player can win a norm when they score 6.5 points after nine games, 7 points after 10 games or 8 points after 11 games,' he said.
Sean will need to collect two other norms with the number of games totaling 27 at the minimum before he is granted a full GM title.
Despite the achievement, Sean signaled that his best was yet to come.
'I have been playing a bit poorly,' he said.
Sean beat Geetha Narayanan Gopal of India, Sophie Milliet of France, fellow Indonesian Tirta Chandra Purnama and Antonio. He drew with Alina l'Ami of Romania, Muhammad Lutfi Ali, Farid Firmansyah, Irine Kharisma Sukandar and Nguyen Anh Dung of Vietnam.
His game against Antonio folded up tightly with both players targeting their attacks at respective King's file. However, the young Indonesian appeared to have drained Antonio's energy as the veteran Filipino, 53, found himself in a critical position against the clock.
He finally gave up after 39 moves of Caro-Kann game. The end game was quite balanced, with Sean holding a bishop against Antonio's knight. But Antonio seemed to have consumed too much time as his clock flag fell down while Sean still had 17 minutes.
'I spent too much time,' Antonio said.
He offered his compliment to Sean. 'He is playing like a grandmaster. He's playing a solid chess game. He is the next grandmaster of Indonesia.'
Should Sean succeed in the next tournaments, he will be Indonesia's sixth GM-titled player after Herman Suradiradja, Ardiansyah, Utut Adianto, Cerdas Barus and Susanto Megaranto.
On another board, Irine may rue the missed chance to add a second GM norm after losing to fellow Indonesian Farid Firmansyah.
Irine, who collected her first norm during the Asian zonal championship in Vietnam in 2012, miscued the position with her weak 17th move, which allowed Farid to win a piece and 11 moves later the game.
Other players to score wins in the ninth games included Ahn Dung, Lutfi and Sergei Tiviakov.
Ahn Dung trickily sacrificed a knight before forcing Alina l'Ami to abandon the game after 46 moves. Tiviakov held an advantage of better material quality, which he converted to a victory against Medina Warda Aulia, while Lutfi was too strong for Tirta to inflict his fellow Indonesian a sixth loss in the tournament.
The only draw on the day was in the game between Gopal and Milliet, who agreed to leave their game deadlocked after 31 moves.
The players were back to the playing hall in the evening to play the ninth round games, with Sean holding black against top seed and defending champion Tiviakov.
