Indonesia's Utut suffers fastest defeat at MK Cafe Cup

JAKARTA (JP): Home favorite and top seed Michal Krasenkow buried Indonesian Utut Adianto's dreams of winning the MK Cafe Cup chess tournament in Koszalin, Poland, Wednesday.

Facing a must-win situation, Utut, who played black, was outwitted in the penultimate-round match that lasted 27 moves and took two hours and 45 minutes.

It was sweet revenge for Krasenkow who lost to Utut, also in a short match, in their last meeting in Subic Bay a few months ago. Then the Polish Grand Master (GM) resigned after just 20 moves.

A dejected Utut blamed his defeat on his failure to escape a complicated variant on Krasenkow's d4 opening.

"I was trapped in a variant that goes in favor of the player with the white pieces. He executed me without mercy," Utut said.

Krasenkow, whose elo rating of 2,655 outshines the other 92 competing chess wizards, moved up to second place in the provisional standings with 6.5 points and kept alive a remote chance to bag the winner's US$5,000 purse.

Joining the Pole were Igor Novikov, Alexander Beljavski, Zbynek Hracek and Emil Sutovsky.

Igor Khenkin of Israel moved within sight of the title despite only drawing with Novikov Wednesday. Khenkin, who set the pace from the onset, has now got 7.5 points and needs only a draw in the final round to clinch the title.

Utut slipped to the ninth place with 5.5 points, along with GM Jaan Ehlvest, GM Sergei Movsesian, GM Alexander Volzhin, GM Henrik Teske, GM Ljubomir Ftarcink, International Master (IM) Markowski, IM Bartoscz Socko and GM Vladimir Malanjuk.

Other results Wednesday included: GM Sarunas Sulskis-Beljavski 0-1, Ehlvest-Sutovsky 0-1, Hracek-Socko 0-1, Movsesian-GM Rogozenko 0.5-0.5, Malanjuk-Volzhin 0.5-0.5, Ftacnik-Markowski 0.5-0.5, GM Eduardus Rozentalis-IM Kongivel 1-0.

Chess observer Kristianus Liem said yesterday that Utut had to win his final match. A loss could cancel out a 10-point increase in his elo rating of 2,610 he gained after the previous two tournaments in Biel, Switzerland and Estonia.

"A win over an opponent with a lower ranking will save his rating. A loss will shave 10 points and a draw will cut five points," Kristianus said.

He added that a victory over an opponent with a better ranking would improve Utut's rating by five points.

Utut's next opponent will be announced shortly before the match. (lnt)