Fortune seemed to have smiled on Indonesian chess hopeful Novendra Priasmoro during the sixth day of the 2019 JAPFA Grandmaster and Woman Grandmaster Chess Tournament allowing him to secure one victory and one draw during the eighth and ninth rounds on Tuesday.

International Master (IM) Novendra, who has Elo ratings of 2457, started the day with a four-hour battle against his fellow countryman Fide Master (FM) Azarya Jodi Setyaki.

Having only a little time to take a rest before playing in round nine in the afternoon did not have any real affect on Novendra’s performance as he still managed to force a draw with the current top standing Rustam Khusnutdinov of Kazakhstan. On the 15th move, both players agreed to end the game with a draw.

“I still had time to rest, even just for a bit, after the eighth round. It was enough to support my performance [against Rustam],” he told The Jakarta Post after his match against the Kazakh.

Playing at the Yogyakarta tournament where he faced several players with a better game and more experience than him, Novendra said he did not have a specific target other than collecting more points for his Elo ratings and gaining more experience.

“Of course I want to win every time I play,” he said.

“Their experience also shows their qualities as players and I learn from that,” he added.

Novendra played against the top seed Grandmaster (GM) Dmitry Kokarev of Russia in the opening round and managed to record a draw. The youngster also managed to record another draw with his senior GM Susanto Megaranto on the second round.

In total, Novendra, who is currently paving his way to become GM, has now collected 5.5 points after playing in nine rounds and competing with Kokarev, Susanto and Khusnutdinov to govern the standings.

Unlike Novendra, Woman Grandmaster (WGM) Medina Warda Aulia was still struggling to find her mojo again as she endured another loss during round eight. Playing against Kokarev, Medina, who is the only woman competing at the open category, surrendered easily to the top seed.

After the game, Kokarev said that Medina was a good player but unfortunately not in the tournament.

Commenting on the result, the Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) development and achievement head Kristianus Liem said Medina should have shown more resistance during the game against Kokarev and not surrendered so easily. However, Kristianus noted that Medina was not at her prime as her focus was currently divided between the tournament and working on her final thesis.

In the WGM competition, Indonesians Chelsie Monica Sihite and Ummi Fisabilillah collected enough points to achieve a new norm for their title. After gaining it first at the 2012 Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, Turkey, Chelsie made it to her second Woman Grandmaster norm on Tuesday after recording a draw against his compatriot Ummi in round nine. Meanwhile, Ummi won her second Woman International Master norm after first gaining it in 2006.

Kristianus said Chelsie now only had to increase her Elo ratings to qualify for the WGM. In order to achieve WGM status a player must have Elo ratings of 2300 while Chelsie currently only has 2212.

Chelsie said she had set her eyes on qualifying for the national squad for the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in the Philippines at the end of this year. The second phase of the selection process for the SEA Games squad will continue at the end of this month.

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