Ahead of the 2019 Chess World Cup, to be held in Russia from September to October, Indonesian grandmaster (GM) Susanto Megaranto is preparing intensely for the tough opponents he will come up against.

As part of his preparations, he is competing at the 2019 JAPFA Grandmaster Chess Tournament in Yogyakarta, which began on June 13 and will conclude on Friday.

At the previous two World Cups, Susanto, who earned the title of grandmaster when he was 17, has stumbled in the first round.

Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) development and achievement head Kristianus Liem said he expected the 31-year-old Susanto to surpass his previous performances and make his way through to the second round.

GM Utut Adianto remains the only Indonesian to have made it into the second round of a Chess World Cup, a feat he achieved in 1997, 2000 and 2004.

“We want to create history. Susanto has competed twice at the World Cup but he was knocked out in the first round. We’re preparing him to do better,” Kristianus told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of the JAPFA tournament on Tuesday.

To match the top players in Russia, Kristianus said his team was working on developing an unexpected opening strategy Susanto could use in his first match up, likely to be against one of the tournament favorites.

“His Elo rating is quite low compared to others who qualified for the tournament. This means he will have to face a top seed in the first round,” he said. Susanto’s Elo rating is 2548.

“If he plays normally without any surprising [moves], it will be tough for him to steal a win, as his opponent will be strong in all facets.

“If he cannot [match his opponent] technically, he should [at least] shock them psychologically with unexpected opening moves. This strategy will buy [Susanto] time as the opponent will have to decide their next move,” added Kristianus.

Susanto qualified for the World Cup after winning the Eastern Asia Chess Championship in Ulaanbaatar in April.

Besides Susanto, woman grandmaster (WGM) Medina Warda Aulia will represent Indonesia at the 2020 Women’s World Chess Cup in Belarus.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian chess team is also gearing up to compete at the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in the Philippines from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11.

The association has picked 20 names as part of the first round of selections for the national team. Percasi will hold the second selection round from June 25 to 28 to pick the final 10 names.

Kristianus said three names had already sealed a spot in the SEA Games squad, namely Susanto, Medina and WGM Irene Kharisma Sukandar — the top players in the country.

The SEA Games team will compete at the Biel International Chess Festival in Switzerland in July, which will feature rapid and blitz categories.

At Yogyakarta’s JAPFA tournament, Susanto currently sits in second place on the leaderboard, after collecting 5.5 points from nine rounds out of 11. The current leader of the tournament is GM Rustam Khusnutdinov of Kazakhstan with 6 points.

Susanto sits level with his junior international master (IM) Novendra Priasmoro and GM Dmitry Kokarev of Russia, who have collected 5.5 points apiece.

The winners of the JAPFA Grandmaster Tournament and the concurrently held Women’s Grandmaster Tournament will receive US$2,000 and $1,500, respectively.

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