Pawn maneuvers decisive in Utut's second draw

Pawn maneuvers decisive in Utut's second draw

JAKARTA (JP): Pawns were so dear for both Indonesia's number
one chess player Utut Adianto and Poland's Michal Krasenkow that
they took four and a half hours just to support their promotion
in the Gunadarma International Chess Tournament's second round
yesterday.

However, these strenuous, time-consuming efforts only resulted
in a 46th-move draw. Deadlock had seemed inevitable by the 44th
move.

It was the second draw for both grandmasters, who have the
same elo rating, 2,605.

Playing with the black pieces, Utut succeeded in making
Krasenkow accept his favorite Queen's Gambit defense. However,
Indonesia's chess wizard was unable to turn the game into a brisk
zig-zag as he usually does because Krasenkow played very
cautiously.

The prevailing peace, however, could not be maintained after
the 15th moves as both were weary of seesawing. "Both players
adopted risky but highly accurate maneuvers prompted by the
stealthy advances of both sides' pawns," chess analyst Gunawan,
who is also the chairman of the Gunadarma university chess club,
commented.

"Both Utut and Krasenkow seemed to focus heavily on how to
support the progress of their pawns. It seemed that they used
their queens, knights, rooks and other sources just to reach this
end," he said.

In other matches, Eugene Torre of the Philippines beat Ivan
Sokolov of Bosnia-Herzegovina after 53 moves on a Slavia defense.
It was the longest match of the day at five and a half hours.

Indonesian international master Dede Liu, who entered the
tournament with a wild card, managed to tie with Lubomir Ftacnik
of Slovakia after 52 moves on a Slavia defense. "It was really
special given that Liu played with the black pieces and that
there is a difference of 205 in elo rating between them," said
Gunawan, who heads the tournament's organizing committee. (arf)