Ruben stuns GM Utut in chess tournament

Ruben stuns GM Utut in chess tournament

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's number one chess player Utut Adianto
and his Kazakhstani counterpart Vladislav Tkachiev flipped and
flopped on the boards of an international chess tournament here
yesterday.

Grandmaster Utut, whose elo rating is 2,605, was stopped short
by FIDE Master Ruben Gunawan on the 58th move. Ruben's elo rating
was 2,425. The win reduced Ruben's losing streak to Utut to 5-1.

GM Tkachiev, whose elo rating of 2,620 is the highest among
all the grandmasters in the fray, became prey to Indonesian
grandmaster Ardiansyah, whose elo rating is 190 points lower, on
the 56th move.

Hendry Jamal, the tournament secretary, said that Utut lost
because his maneuvers were too bold. Having no advantage by
playing with the black pieces, Utut succeeded in directing Ruben
to follow one of his favorite defenses, the Nimzo-Indian. Attack-
minded Utut sacrificed his e5 pawn on the 12th move in order to
pave the way for a greater offensive operation. To Utut's
surprise, however, Ruben answered it with a long rook counter-
attack on the 14th move even though his kingside defense was
vulnerable.

This made Utut even more attack-minded which prompted him to
make another sacrifice on the 20th move. Utut exchanged his d8
rook for Ruben's d3 bishop in order to surround Ruben. But Utut
failed to encircle him from all sides. Ruben answered it by
moving his f3 knight to d4 and secured his king in a closed
position impossible to attack.

From then on, Utut had no other choice but to seek a draw. But
to do so he had to regain his e5 position, which he had
sacrificed on the 12th move, by eliminating Ruben's h2, f2 and e5
pawns. However, this would only expose Utut's king and put it in
a more vulnerable position. "A draw would still be possible, but
terribly difficult and time-consuming," Hendry said. Utut did not
try that and fell.

On his surprise victory, Ardiansyah said that he succeeded in
getting Tkachiev into his favorite Kings Indian defense, which "I
master very well." Ardiansyah said his victory was already sealed
when he sacrificed his b5 knight on the 21st move. "This is
exactly in accordance with the theory," he said. But Tkachiev,
knowing very well that he will lose, still tried to circumvent
the game. "This is necessary to save face. At least he fell on
the 56th move, not as early as the 21st move," remarked
International Master Danny Juswanto.

The other results of the day: GM Joerg Hickl of Germany beat
Syarif Machmud after 43 moves, Cerdas Barus drew with GM Edhi
Handoko after the 36th move, Danny Juswanto beat Ivan Jonathan
Situru on the 33th move, and GM Julian Hodgson of England beat GM
Ye Jiang Chuan of China after the 86th move. (arf)