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)