JAKARTA- Despite leading until the fifth round of the two-bout JAPFA Chess Festival 2022 chess tournament, IM Mohamad Ervan ultimately failed to fulfill his ambition. This is after Ervan failed to score points against Filipino chess player GM Laylo Darwin (2439) in the sixth round held at the Senayan Multipurpose Building, Jakarta on Wednesday (14/9 /2022).

The chess player with 2395 Eloration actually only needed a draw to win this two-fight tournament. Because in the fifth round, Ervan was still in front with 3-2 points. However, in the sixth or last game, he lost to the Filipino chess player. The end result was 3-3, but Ervan lost in the tie break (2-0).

Despite his defeat in the last race, Ervan does not regret the results obtained. “The strategy I prepared is very different, the opponent’s game is difficult to predict,” Ervan said after the tournament’s closing ceremony.

He will rate all matches played against Laylo Darwin at the event. For him, the main problem to be tackled is the opening, especially when holding the dark fruit.

The same result was obtained by Indonesian chess player IM Medina Warda Aulia. In this tournament, Medina, who had a two-fight match against WGM Gong Qianyun (Singapore), also had to bury his dream of winning. Over the six rounds, the chess player who was subscribed to the national training team lost with 2.5 final points, while that of the opponent was 3.5.

Medina admitted that his performance in participating in the tournament is currently on the decline, unlike when he defended the Indonesian national team at the Olympics in India some time ago. At that time, the performances were very good.

“Indeed, in sports sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down. Maybe now it’s not the best performance for me,” Medina said.

As for the open category, the winner is West Java FM chess player Arif Abdul Hafiz with a collection of 8 points. For the second to tenth positions occupied by FM Hamdani Rudin (West Java/7.5 points), FM Catur Adi Sagita (East Java/7.5), IM Jodi Setyaki (DKI Jakarta/7.5), NM Dzaky Dhiaulhaq Bts 207 (Central Sulawesi/7), IM Danny Juswanto (Banten/7), NM Suyud Hartoyo (Central Java/7), NM Iqra Moesa Putra (Kaltim/7), Garry R Jativa Bts 207 (Jabar/7) and IM Gilbert Elroy (DKI Jakarta/7 ) ).

Assistant General PB Percasi, Major General TNI (Retired) Yulius Selvanus advised the athletes who hosted this tournament to continue honing their skills. He compares a knife if it is not sharpened, it will become dull.

“So chess brothers, keep honing your abilities, never give up for the best for us and for Indonesia. From Japfa, we also thank you for your unremitting enthusiasm for advancing Indonesian chess,” said Yulius. encouraged by the JAPFA Chess Club have successfully entered the intermediate board of the JAPFA Chess Festival U 14 2022.

The junior chess player was trained by FM Surya Wahyudi and MI Tirta Chandra for the past two years. These three are the result of the junior chess mentorship program developed by the JAPFA social investment team. “Two junior chess players came from Lampung namely Vellin Trenjel and Jonifar Setepi. And from Gorontalo named Taufik Defasya,” said R. Artsanti Alif, Vice President responsible for JAPFA Social Investment.

“They have been accompanied by JAPFA for more than 2 years intensely through both offline and online training,” he added.

Artsanti added that the results of the training have seen extraordinary achievements. Vellin, for example, managed to win the Lampung Championship for the U-14s. Meanwhile, Taufik is seen as a member of the Gorontalo regional administration team. Setepi was also able to enter the top five in the Lampung Regional Championship.

“The success of each of the chess players is an extraordinary achievement given that they trained intensely for two years from scratch,” Artsanti said. “This result is the hard work of foster children as well as their FM trainers Surya Wahyudi and MI Tirta Chandra,” he added.

Furthermore, Artsanti explained that the success of obtaining three junior chess players through the seed finder program was a starting point for the next program. According to him, JAPFA will continue to search more intensively for young chess players and develop intensive training models.

“This year, we continue to search for young chess seeds with integrated programs in JAPFA for Kids activities. This year, through the JAPFA For Kids Awards 2022, we found two potential candidates,” said Artsanti.

“Later, we will test these two candidates and accompany them to ensure that they have enough provisions to compete in the professional chess arena,” he added. ***