Accused By Social Climber In Dewa Kipas And GothamChess Polemic, GM Irene: I Am An Athlete, Not An Artist

GM Irene Kharisma Sukandar (Instagram @irene_sukandar)

JAKARTA - Grand Master (GM) Irene Kharisma Sukandar responded to the accusations of citizens that she was considered a social climber, trying to take the stage in the case of the Dewa Kipas polemic.

"I am an athlete, not an artist. Precisely because I am an athlete, what I aim for is an achievement, not a sensation. So, my stage is a sports stage", Irene said in a video on her YouTube account quoted from Antara, Sunday, March 21.

"So it is precisely sensations like this that I actually don't really agree, but yes, because this case is already big, whatever I want to say I will go into it, so for this, please my friends to judge", she continues.

Irene said she had received attacks from netizens on her social media accounts after sending an open letter to Deddy Corbuzier. She was well aware that the act of opening the voice would be such a risk.

In the letter, Irene admitted that she did not expect that the news about GothamChess and Dewa Kipas would be as big as it is today.

According to Irene, this incident has harmed many parties and the popularity gained is not comparable to the shame she feels and the other professional chess players in the eyes of the international arena.

"I think this opinion has been formed in the public, so it's a bit difficult to change it back", said Irene.

"From myself what I know, the data I have, I have to voice it out, and I have to provide all of you so that you have another side to this information."

In recent weeks, the news about the case of the Dewa Kipas account, owned by Dadang Subur, who won the match against foreign chess player IM Levy Rozman (USA) under the account name GothamChess has been busy talking about.

This occurred when the Dewa Kipas account was banned by chess.com which then resulted in Indonesian netizens making “attacking” comments on the GothamChess and chess.com social media accounts, such as on Twitter, Instagram, and also YouTube because they did not accept the Dewa Kipas account being banned.

Deddy Corbuzier invited the owner of the Dewa Kipas account to appear on his podcast. After the open letter, Irene was also invited to Deddy Corbuzier's podcast.

Deddy Corbuzier's podcast team then took the initiative to make a friendly match between Dewa Kipas and Irene, which will be held on Monday tomorrow, with a total prize of IDR 150 million.