2nd Indonesian WGM is in the Making?

GiLoCatur is following a chess tournament named Telin Chess International Tournament held in Jakarta from 1st until 7th April. Why? Because the tournament is participated by the Indonesian Sea Games chess players. Surely, Indonesia is ahead of Malaysia in preparing its team for the SEA games. As far as GiLoCatur aware, the next international chess tournament that will take place in Indonesia is the Asian Cities Chess Team Championship or also known as the Dubai Cup. It will be held also in Jakarta from 21st until 29th April. GiLoCatur is not sure whether Indonesian SEA games chess players will take part. We'll see on that. Malaysia, on the other hand, will be represented by the Penang team which is the recent Inter-state champion.

What really impress GiLoCatur in the chess tournament is the performance of Medina Warda Aulia until the fourth round. For those not in the know, Medina is about the same age as our own Nur Nabila. She had participated in a couple of chess tournaments held in Malaysia particularly KLCA Chess Open. 

In 2008, Medina played in the Challengers section where she was placed 11th with 6/9 points. Nabila became champion with 7.5/9 points but they did not meet each other.

In 2009, Medina took part in the KLCA Open held at Shah's Village Hotel in Petaling Jaya. Meanwhile, Nabila did not take part. Her performance then not outstanding yet as she managed only 4/9 points and ranked 37th out of 56 total participants. 

In 2010, both Medina and Nabila took part in the KLCA Chess Open held at the KL Olympics Sports Hotel. More than 100 players took part in the tournament which was won by the reigning world women champion of Hou Yi Fan. Medina performed better in the tournament where she managed to win against a Vietnamese Woman International Master and a Malaysian International Master. By winning four, drawing two and losing three games, Medina scored 5/9 points and ranked 48th.

In the 9th ASEAN age group chess championship in Vietnam, Medina was in the same G12 age group with Nabila. The former was placed fourth with 6.5/9 points while the latter was placed 11th with 4.5/9 points. It was in the standard format. In the rapid format, Nabila managed to win the bronze medal (third place) after scoring 5/7 points after winning four, drawing two and losing one. Meanwhile, Medina was placed sixth from 4 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats. She scored half-point less than Nabila. Can we conclude that Nabila is better in the rapid tournament? Can we conclude that Nabila has more exposure and experience in rapid format? Or should Nabila play less in rapid and more in standard / classic tourneys?

Once again in the 10th ASEAN age group chess championship also in Vietnam, the rivalry between Medina and Nabila continued. The former was the first seed with a WCM title while the latter was seeded second with just 45 ratings gap. Medina showed that she was better than Nabila when she cruised through to become the champion for their age group category with impressive 8.5/9 points. Medina crushed Nabila who emerged the first runner up in the sixth round. Viewing their game, for GiLoCatur, Medina just had slight advantage in the endgame. Nabila just had disadvantage when she was defeated by a Vietnamese player in the first round. How about their performance in the rapid format? GiLoCatur could not find the final results. By the way, Medina had played in G14 age group for the rapid while Nabila stayed in G12 age group.

Last year, Nabila did not take part in the 11th ASEAN age group chess championship held in Subic, Philippines. Instead she played in the MSSM chess championship in Kangar, Perlis that was clashed with the ASEAN age group. While Medina took part in the age group championship. Instead of playing in the Girls 14 category, she played in the Girls 20 category in all standard, rapid and blitz events.

Back to Telin Chess International Tournament  ...

from chess-results.com

From the above chart, it is obvious that Medina is having a great performance after the fourth round. With FIDE rating of 2035 and ranked 64th from the total 110 participants, she won against the 9th seed, IM Ronny Gunawan who is rated at 2420. Then she drew with another compatriot IM, Salor Sitanggang (FIDE: 2382). Then she played very well to crush a 2300+ FM and 2400+ IM in the third and fourth round respectively.  So, in the fifth round she would play black against well-known Philippines GrandMaster, Eugenio Torre who has ratings of near 2500. Can she win?

[ Medina did not manage to win against the Pinoy GM. BUT in the sixth round, she upset WGM Irene on board 10 with white pieces. Do you want to know who was her 7th round opponent? On the fifth board, Medina played black against GM Susanto. Yes, GM Susanto Megaranto. What is the result? No, she did not win. But she managed to draw with the Indonesian GM who has 2533 FIDE ratings. What a feat! Updated - 12.41am


Medina's victory over WGM Irene was picked up by the famous Susan Polgar's chess blog with title "Teen sensation scores upset". Updated on 6 Apr 2011, 11.38pm ]

For GiLoCatur, such results and performance indicate the steady improvement in her chess career. If such great performance continues, no doubt Medina will become the second Indonesian Woman Grand Master after Irene Kharisma Sukandar soon enough. Malaysian chess fraternity has to find out how Medina is groomed and taught to have steady progress and improvement. We, the chess community that includes the chess authority, chess associations, chess academy and coaches, chess parents and chess players, should be united to help our chess prodigies like Nabila, Najiha, Li Tian, Li Ting, the Puteri sisters and many others to have similar progress and improvement. DO WE DARE? CAN WE?

more news and info about Medina here and here