Top Russian coach polishes Utut's skills

Top Russian coach polishes Utut's skills

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Chess Association's training
director, Eka Putra Wirya said yesterday his chief intention of
hiring internationally reputed chess coach Mark Dvoretsky of
Russia was to further polish and sharpen the skills of the
country's No. One player, Grandmaster Utut Adianto.

"The Russian coach was hired specially to train Utut as I'm
keen to see him become one of the world beaters. I want Utut to
be at least ranked among the world's top 30 players," Eka, who is
also the owner of the Jakarta-based Enerpac chess school, told
Antara.

Utut, whose elo rating is 2605, is currently ranked 55th in
the world. The 31-year-old Indonesian chess wizard is one of the
instructors at the Enerpac chess school.

Dvoretsky, reportedly the best chess coach in Russia, a
country which has traditionally produced world-rated players in
this cerebral sport, arrived in Jakarta last Monday. He has been
training Utut intensively since Tuesday.

The Russian was hired for US$2,000 for the two-week non-stop
intensive "training course."

"It is money well spent as I believe the coach will be able to
polish and hone Utut's performance and help catapult his world
ranking from the 55th to 30th or even higher," Eka, who was named
one of the country's best sports managers last year, said.

Utut himself is full of praise for Dvoretsky's training
methods. "He is a great coach, his mastery of chess techniques is
quite extraordinary."

He said he is exhausted after only three days of training
under the tutelage of the Russian. "But I have to live with it as
I'm determined to improve my world ranking. I also don't want to
disappoint Pak Eka who has been so generous in hiring Dvoretsky
to train me specially," Utut said. (bas)