Indonesia can have high expectations from young Satria Duta Cahaya
Peter Long is a multifarious person. Apart from training talents, officiating tournaments, writing reports and covering tournaments, he keeps a keen eye on various talents. We often get to know about various tournaments, opportunities, accomplishments from various parts of South East Asia, thanks to him. He brings us an update about a 16-year-old talented Indonesian youth named - Satria Cahaya Duta. He scored his maiden IM-norm at 45th Chess Olympiad while playing on board no.2. As of this writing, he is at second place with a score of 3.5/4 at Indonesia IM Chess Tournament 2025. Get to know more about this teenager from Peter Long and also check out one of his best games annotated by the boy himself. Photo: FM FT IA Peter Long
Teenager on the rise
The soon-to-be 17 years old - his birthday is on 17 July - is a late starter to chess, because while picking up the game at 8 years of age, it was only when he turned 12 at the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic did he begin to seriously look at chess to become his main activity.
Parents are very important for a young player’s development and when Satria showed an interest in playing chess, he was given a subscription to lessons on chesskid.com.
But it was only when the pandemic hit and with new maturity did he start playing a lot online, not only on chess.com but on other major platforms like lichess.org, and that quickly included playing on the many online chess competitions where he got opportunities to play with grandmasters and international masters.
Satria, the youngest of three siblings, has an unconventional family who has focused on developing creativity in their children and have successfully balanced homeschooling with memberships in clubs and participation in camps.
Once the pandemic ended in 2022, this flexibility made it possible for the then 12-year-old to start playing in as many tournaments as were available, his initial success for the Jakarta native being winning the regional U-11 qualifier for the national finals.
It has always been a learning journey for Satria, always having good results together with a corresponding rating increase, but never winning the first place.
The young man shared that the major change in his chess development came about in 2023 when the All Indonesia Chess Federation (PERCASI) launched the Pelatnas Junior Training Development Program, now in it’s second year, which is coordinated by FST Kristianus Liem and the Utut Adianto Chess School (SCUA) and led by GM Susanto Megaranto and National Team Coach IM Tirta Chandra Purnama.
PERCASI has always made investments in developing young talent and the Pelatnas initiative has identified young talent, ensured the trainees get regular top level training and guidance, and fast tracked national selection.
Since then Satria’s development has been rapid, even getting the opportunity to play for Indonesia at the World Chess Olympiad in Budapest last year in the absence of several leading national players where on second board he made his first IM norm with a 7/10 score.
Now his immediate target is to play in enough tournaments this year to complete the IM title requirements and then of course to try for the GM title and beyond.
We wish young Duta every success in the ongoing Indonesian GM Tournaments in Bandung, and he is currently on 3.5 points from four games with seven more games to play to get four more points and make the 7.5/11 score necessary for his second IM norm.
Check out one of his favorite games as it was the first time he defeated a Grandmaster
Links
PERCASI: Official site and fb page
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