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)