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Meet Irene Kharisma Sukandar, the grandmaster thrust into the spotlight
Indonesia’s most viral chess match pitted an international grandmaster against a retired bird feed salesman. But there is more to the story. It was also a clash of two competing cultures.
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Irene found increasing popularity in recent weeks due to her match against 'Dewa Kipas', an Indonesian online chess player who had allegedly won against record-holders by cheating on global chess website chess.com. (Kompas.com/Raditya Helabumi)
I
rene Kharisma Sukandar is eviscerating her opponent with brutal precision. She looks on at the chessboard with characteristic calm. On occasion, she buries her forehead in the palm of her hand, betraying not a hint emotion.
But there was no chance. Her opponent had made mistake after mistake and she had pounced each time. The match that started as a scandalous yet puzzling chess feud had ended with an international grandmaster defeating a retired salesman.
Naturally, there was more to this story.
Despite its lofty reputation abroad as a game of intellect, chess had never taken off as a professional sport in Indonesia. Skillful players such as Utut Ardianto and Susanto Megaranto emerged from time to time, but scant funding and lack of public interest meant Indonesian chess had never truly threatened the world’s elite.
That’s not to say chess, in itself, was not popular. Walk into any pos ronda (security guard outpost) in any neighborhood in Indonesia and there’s a good chance you will find a chessboard, most likely with lingering coffee and cigarette stains.
A legacy of the New Order era, the pos ronda is an ubiquitous presence in Indonesian cities. Members of the community are often roped in to serve as makeshift security guards, serving alongside professional security guards to protect their neighborhood. Whiling the night away meant there was a need for entertainment, and chess met this need.
Ask any Indonesian person about chess, and what comes to mind are not professional players slugging it out at international championships, but rather the image of their father slipping away after dinnertime, hanging out with his buddies at the pos ronda, chatting over a game of chess.
