Cerdas Barus is an Indonesian chess Grandmaster. He obtained the title of Grandmaster in 1996, making him the first Indonesian to do so. Barus was also the Indonesian national champion in 1995, 1998 and 2001.
Barus was born on March 12, 1968, in Indonesia. He has been playing chess from a young age and has demonstrated his strategic skills in several notable international chess competitions. Barus has achieved success at the Asian Junior Chess Championship, winning the tournament in 1985 and 1986. He was also selected to represent Indonesia at the Chess Olympiads in 1996, 2000 and 2008.
In the World Chess Championship cycle, Barus competed in the FIDE World Chess Championship 1998, where he got eliminated early in the rounds. Nevertheless, he played in the FIDE World Chess Championships in 2000, 2002 and 2004 with varying results.
Throughout his career, he has played against several high-profile opponents including then-world champion Garry Kasparov in 1996. Barus played in the Dutch Chess Championship in 2007 and finished in a respectable 7th place out of 10 players.
Although there isn't much detail about his personal life, Cerdas Barus remains an important figure in Indonesian chess history.