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Indonesian chess contingent gives Asian games a miss to train in Europe
Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) has chosen to skip the Asian Indoor Games, opting instead to tour Europe, with the view of enhancing their gold medal chances at the 2011 Southeast Asian Games
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ndonesian Chess Association (Percasi) has chosen to skip the Asian Indoor Games, opting instead to tour Europe, with the view of enhancing their gold medal chances at the 2011 Southeast Asian Games.
The 10-day competition that will begin in Vietnam on Friday, could have been a good warm up for Indonesian athletes preparing to compete at the upcoming Southeast Asian games in December.
However, as chess will not be featured in the Laos Southeast Asian Games, Percasi has decided to concentrate on honing the chess players' skills by allowing them to compete in Europe.
"Our priority is to make Irene Kharisma and Susanto Megaranto world-class chess players through extensive practise in Europe," Percasi deputy chairman Eka Putra Wirya told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Irene has become the first Indonesian chess player to attain a women's grand master while Susanto is touted to follow his predecessor Utut Adianto as a player to be able to reach a rating of over 2600.
During their European tour, Irene and Susanto will be closely observed by a trainer from Ukraine.
"We are optimistic we will win two or three gold medals in the 2011 Southeast Asian Games," said Eka.
The following games after Laos will be held in Indonesia.
The three-month intensive tour in Europe was previously planned to start in October before being postponed to November or December.
Irene snatched a bronze medal at the last Asian Indoor Games in Macau in 2007, adding to Indonesia's overall collection of two gold and four bronze medals.
The gold medals were won by I Putu Yogi Darmawan (skateboard) and Ni Putu Desi Margawaty (women's pole vault). Indonesia won a gold, a silver and two bronze medals in the inaugural event in Thailand in 2005.
In this year's Asian Indoor Games, Indonesia will be represented by 95 athletes. Gold medals are expected in track-and-field, billiard-snooker, and lion-dragon dance, from the 12 sports the contingent is participating in.
The event features 45 Asian countries, competing for a total of 150 gold medals in 17 sports.
The competition is being held in four cities; Hanoi will host track-and-field, fin-swimming, dance, sepak takraw, wushu, while Ho Chi Minh City will host Vietnamese martial art vovinam, billiard-snooker, bowling, lion-dragon dance, Haiduong archery, aerobic gymnastics and pencak silat, with events also in Hai Phong.
Having little chance against Asian rivals, Indonesian fin-swimmer Priscillia Gunawan may make the Asian Indoor Games a springboard to a second gold after her win in 2003. The 2000-meter specialist is part of Indonesia's 13-strong fin-swimming team.
