Utut beats Peng to pave way to play-off
Utut beats Peng to pave way to play-off
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Grand Master Utut Adianto, whose elo
rating is 2583, managed to take revenge on Chinese GM Peng
Xiaomin, whose elo rating is 2657, in the second leg of the
second game in the US$3.5 million 2000 FIDE World Championships
in New Delhi on Friday.
Utut, playing the black pieces, managed to defeat Peng in the
71st move using the Scandinavia defense.
For the first time in his career, the 35-year-old Indonesian
used the Scandinavia defense, which took him only four hours to
prepare for.
If Utut had used the Caro-Kann defense as planned, Peng would
have anticipated it. Using the defense would have been very easy
to force a draw. If Utut had used the Sicily defense, he would
have found that Peng was very familiar with it. If Utut used the
Modern defense, Peng would also have been prepared because the
Indonesian has used it quite often recently.
"What if I use the Scandinavia defense? It would create a
battle from the first move," said Utut, as quoted by Indonesian
Chess Association (Percasi) spokesman Kristianus Liem at
www.ututadianto.com.
Kristianus, who is also a chess observer, supported the idea
as he had taken along enough data on the defense.
Peng was surprised at Utut's defense. On the seventh move,
Peng played 7.c3 -- which was very unusual for him considering it
was a passive move. Peng usually moves 7.c4, which is more
aggressive.
But after two moves, Peng changed his mind and played 9.c4,
which wasted time. On the 11th move, Utut started to dominate the
game.
He started to attack on the open column b while Peng tried to
counterattack from his king's flank. But Utut's 26...Ee5 move
anticipated the counterattack.
On the 31st move, Utut decided to trade his rook for Peng's
bishop on d3 with the compensation of another pawn and then a
series of pawns in the central.
Another critical moment was when Utut decided to sacrifice his
bishop on c4 on the 57th move. Six moves later, only three of
Utut's pawns and two of Peng's were left on the board and Utut
finished the game perfectly.
"I am very tired," said Utut after the five-hour 15 minute
game.
Both players will have a play-off on Saturday, two games of
25-minute rapid chess and if they still tie they will have to
play two 15-minute rapid chess games. If they still draw, both
players will have a four-minute sudden death for white pieces and
five minutes for black pieces. Both players will have an addition
10 seconds for every move.
The winner of the play-off will face either GM Peter Svidler
of Russia or GM Etienne Bacrot of France. Both players also tied
1-1 Victory Points (VPs).
Top seed Viswanathan Anand of India reached the third round
after winning 1.5-0.5 VPs over GM Viktor Bologan of Moldova.
GM Peter Leko of Hungary also reached the third round after
beating GM Sergei Volkov of Russia 1.5-0.5.
GM Boris Gelfand of Israel defeated GM Emir Dizdarevic of
Bosnia 2-0. (yan)