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)