Jakarta, 9 July 2021 - After holding the JAPFA Grandmaster Duel Match last May to compete for tickets to the 2021 Chess World Cup, now PT Japfa Comfeed Indonesia Tbk (JAPFA) is sending four representatives of Indonesian chess players to Sochi, Russia to compete in the championship which will be held on 10 July - 6 August. For the first time in history, Indonesia was able to place four male and female chess players at the same time in the Chess World Cup. Where GM Susanto Megaranto and IM Mohamad Ervan will participate in the FIDE World Cup, while WGM Irene Kharisma Sukandar and WGM Medina Warda Aulia will participate in the FIDE Women's World Cup.

For Susanto this is his fourth chess world cup after three times in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia, in 2007, 2010 and 2019. For Irene this is her third chess world cup after Sochi 2015 and in Tehran, Iran 2017. While for Medina and Ervan, this is their first chess world cup competition. Medina qualified for the world cup after being supported by JAPFA when she won Zonal 3.3 East Asia in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, 6-16 April 2019. Meanwhile, Ervan qualified after sitting in sixth place in the Continental Asia Hybrid Chess Championship 20-29 May 2021. The top seven in 2021 Asia got tickets to the chess world cup.

In a press conference that was held virtually, Rachmat Indrajaya, Director of Corporate Affairs of JAPFA said, “I am proud to congratulate the chess players who have made it to this point. With JAPFA's commitment to support Indonesian Chess, we will give our best to contribute to making a new chess history for this nation."

The expansion of the world cup participants to 206 people in the men's section, and 103 people in the women's section, made the chance for Indonesian chess players to make history again wide open. Prior to this, only GM Utut Adianto was able to qualify for the second round twice, in 1997 in Groningen, Netherlands and 2004 in Tripoli, Libya. In Sochi 2021, it is hoped that this record can be broken by one of the four chess players representing Indonesia. As it is known, the Chess World Cup always uses a knock out system. The two chess players who face each other will compete in two standard chess rounds with one hand holding a white piece and one holding a black piece. If the result is a 1-1 draw, then two rounds will be matched again in a quick chess format. If the match is still a draw, then two rounds will be played again using the flash chess format. Even if the result still shows a draw, then a sudden-death match will be played using 5 minutes of thinking time for those holding white pieces and 4 minutes for those holding black pieces. But if the result is a draw, then the one holding the black fruit will qualify for the second round.

Kristianus Liem, Head of Coaching & Achievement (Head of Binpres) PB Percasi who is currently in Russia accompanying the athletes also said, "Seeing that it is not easy for chess players to pass the first round of matches, they have previously been provided with various trainings since last April. Not only that, we also included the GM coach Ruslan Scherbakov accompanying him to Sochi.”

The chess players received the enthusiastic support from the Indonesian Embassy in Russia, where they received an invitation to visit the Indonesian Embassy in Moscow before they continued their journey to the match location. The hope is that at this Chess World Cup, new history can be made and the Indonesian flag can be unfold.

Gens Una Sumus