Nigel Short hands Utut second straight defeat

Nigel Short hands Utut second straight defeat

JAKARTA (JP): Haste proved fatal for Indonesian grandmaster Utut Adianto. It robbed him of the advantage of playing white.

Indeed, it was the cause of his 50th-move loss to British rival Nigel Short in the second round of their chess duel yesterday. Short now leads Utut 2-0 and will play white piece in the third session of the scheduled for six matches today.

Smarting from his first-round defeat, Utut unexpectedly turned the passive mood of Short's Slavia defense into a sudden jolt after 19 moves. The Indonesian sacrificed a king-side pawn, only to force the Briton to allow a frontal shake.

From that point on, Utut, a hot-blooded 30-year-old, went fiercer. Hungry for another attack, Utut made an unprecedented sacrifice exchange at the 27th move. He let his c5 rook be captured after taking Short's knight.

"It was a dangerous, unimaginable sacrifice," Short said at the end of the game. Apparently regretting the remark, Short glanced at Utut before saying: "It was obviously an incorrect move."

Utut could have won, or at least managed to draw, if he had not been so passionate in pursuing a win because Short, when on the black side, usually seeks to draw, chess analyst Kristianus Liem said.

Recent statistics on all the matches between Short and former world champion Anatoly Karpov show that Short recorded minus nine (14 losses, 5 wins) when playing black but plus five (14 wins, 9 losses) when playing white.

"After the extreme, I decided just to return the exchange. I was not sure if it was the best option. I was afraid I might lose. Utut's moves have since been quite dangerous," said world number 14 Short.

Utut went on attacking until the 31st move when Short succeeded in returning the exchange by offering his rook for Utut's bishop.

From the time at which he took the rook, Utut began running out of attacking power, said international judge Djamil Djamal, who refereed the game.

The 31st move was the point of no return. Short described it as "the time I knew I was completely in the winning position." For Utut it was just a matter of time before he met his Waterloo.

Utut declined to comment on the match, slipping quietly away. (arf)