Indonesian Chess Player Beats Online Grand Master, Causes Backlash

KOMPAS.com – Indonesian online chess newbie Dadang Subur recently caused a stir on cyberspace, after he beat highly ranked chess master Levy Rozman on the Chess.com online gaming platform. But instead of winning accolades, his feat got him banned from the website.

Dadang’s son Ali Akbar said he took on Levy on Tuesday. “My father played a Ranked Match [on Chess.com] before he went to bed,” he recalled to KompasTekno days later on WhatsApp on Thursday, March 4.

“He was just happy that his opponent was ranked as a GM [Grand Master], FM [Fide Master] or IM [International Master], so he had no idea whom he was up against,”. The matchup also seemed natural, as Levy is a Chess.com IM with an ELO of 2,400, while Dadang’s ELO is 2,300.

Using the online handle ‘Dewa_Kipas’, Dadang beat Rozman, who played under the name ‘GothamChess’, in under five minutes. The win did not go unnoticed by chess buffs, including those on a Reddit website subforum dedicated to the game.

Ali pointed out that Dadang, through his account Dewa_Kipas, became attacked by other Chess.com users.

Getting the heat

“The attacks went directly to the inbox of my father’s Chess.com account. They included statements such as ‘erase your account before it is too late’ or ‘you damned cheat’. They also accused [Dadang] of using cheat codes,” he asserted.

“Since they went directly to Chess.com’s inbox, I concluded that [Dadang’s] account was blocked after reports [by Rozman’s fans], many of whom are Twitch users who saw their match on real time.”

Also read: Indonesia Urged to Explore the Export Potential of Online Games

Neither Ali nor Dadang, a former Indonesian professional chess player who was a contender in the country’s annual National Sports Week [PON], reckoned on Levy’s considerable online presence.

Aside from showing his games live on Twitch and YouTube, the Grand Master ranked Levy’s handle GothamChess has more than 346 thousand followers on Twitch and over 19 thousand followers on Chess.com.

Facebook.com/AliAkbar Dadang Subur aka Dewa_Kipas on Chess.com. Dadang caused an online stir after beating Chess.com Grand Master Levy Rozman alias GothamChess

In contrast, Dadang’s Chess.com account Dewa_Kipas has eight followers and no title, though he has an ELO of 2,300. However, this belied his phenomenal rise in the apps since he joined Chess.com on February 12.

“The average [Chess.com] user would take a few months to raise their ELO from 800 to 1,200. My father raised his ELO from 800 to 2,300 in three weeks because of intensive game play.” Dadang played 332 games on Chess.com, garnering 232 wins, 90 losses, and 10 ties.

Also read: Indonesia's Digital Economy Potential Hinges on Equal Internet Access

Ali viewed the blocking of his father’s account as unacceptable, on grounds that it reflected bullying by a “major Chess.com account with many followers against a minor account.” He added that Dadang started playing on Chess.com on his advice.