Medina Warda Aulia, a student of the Administrative Sciences Masters Program, Faculty of Administrative Sciences, Universitas Indonesia (FIA UI) class of 2020, won a proud achievement by winning two gold medals at the XX National Sports Week (PON) in Papua. Medina won gold in both speed chess and standard chess in women’s team category. The announcement was made on Wednesday (13/10) at the Swiss-Bellhotel Ballroom, Merauke Regency, Papua. Standard chess is a chess game with 90 minutes of thinking time from the first move, while speed chess is a chess competition number that gives very short time to each chess player who competes.
In speed chess, the consideration time given to each player is no more than 10 minutes. Medina managed to get a total of 8.5 points from nine rounds in the speed chess category and 8.5 points from nine rounds in the women’s team standard chess. Regarding her victory, Medina said that self-confidence was the key to her victory. This confidence was built from a lot of experience, so she can be calm in facing the match. The experience and achievements of this youngest female Grand Master in Indonesia are no joke.
Successfully won the Grand Master title at the age of 16, Medina won three times the World School Chess Championship in 2008-2009-2014, won 3 Grand European Open in Bulgaria in 2014, won a gold medal at Sea Games in 2019, and broke world record in a non-stop online simultaneous chess competition for beating 650 students in Indonesia.
This woman who started her interest in chess at the age of nine said that playing chess is very useful in training a strategic mindset. “In playing the chess, every step of it has to think about the strategy of our opponent and us. Of the many choices, the best must be taken, and from the steps we take, we must also think about the impact in the future. This is the strategic mindset that I mean,” she explained. This habit of strategic thinking also led her to choose the Department of State Administration at UI for an undergraduate level in 2015, and a Master in Administrative Sciences, majoring in Public Policy in 2020. “The process of making public policy is not easy. We must think about the risks and factors that may occur in the future. This requires a thinking process that is visionary and one step ahead, and this is similar to the pattern of strategic thinking in chess,” said Medina.
Apart from influencing the mindset, chess has also brought its own happiness to Medina’s life. Chess gave her confidence because she succeeded in bringing pride to her parents, and at a relatively young age she has also traveled the world. According to her, these things are a fortune that not many people her age can enjoy. She hopes that the story of her victory can inspire more women to enter the world of chess and bring Indonesia’s name to the world stage. The chess competition of XX National Sports Week conducted matches in three numbers, which are blitz chess, speed chess, and standard chess.
From each of these numbers there are five categories, which are open team, women team, open individuals, woman individuals, and limited individuals. There are a total of 15 pairs of medals in this chess competition which started on October 4. It was noted that this sport branch was attended by 100 athletes from 23 provinces from all over Indonesia. The chess matches at XX National Sports Week has implemented Olympic implementation standards by implementing strict health protocols, such as mandatory antigen tests for all athletes, spraying disinfectants, providing hand washing facilities, and the obligation to change masks every five hours for athletes.
