Zt: 1987 Jakarta

In a recent post, Zonal Qualifiers C14, I was reminded of an outstanding zonal mystery, the 1987 Jakarta event for FIDE zone 11. Although the word 'scandal' is attached to the zonal, I had never seen any detailed explanation of what happened there. In particular, did the scandal have an impact on who qualified to the subsequent Interzonals?

Thanks to IndonesiaBase, there is an entire page describing the event, FIDE Zonal 11, Bogor/Jakarta 1987, including copies of letters from the players complaining about alleged collusion among the Chinese players. The page informs,

The combination of the unethical play, the fact that China had four out of twelve finalists, and the carry-through system damaged the tournament so badly to the extent of beyond repairable. GM Ian Rogers was the first player to pull out as a protest. GM Utut Adianto and GM Rosendo Balinas Jr were the next ones to do so.

Prof Dr Max Arie Wotulo, the President of FIDE Zonal 11 and an IM himself, agreed. He declared that the final stage was void. The twelve finalists were expected to be at Jakarta in May to replay the final stage. However, for a mysterious reason, the FIDE governing body ruled out this decision and endorsed the top two of the event, Chinese Xu Jun and Filipino GM Eugenio Torre, as the Zonal 11 representatives to Interzonal Championship. Case closed.

I added clippings for the IndonesiaBase crosstables and explanations to my page on (C14) 1987-1990 Zonal Cycle. Add this event to the list of bizarre zonals: 1960 Berg en Dal (as in Cold War Chess Politics) and 1975 Barcelona / 1976 Arandjelovac.