Utut bows out to Peng in World Chess C'ships

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Grand Master Utut Adianto had to bow out to Chinese GM Peng Xiaomin in the first match of the second round at the 2000 FIDE World Championships in New Delhi on Thursday.

Utut, who held the white pieces, was unable to counter Peng's new move of 10...Kd7 which seemed at first to be nothing special. Utut tried to look for a loophole in the move but he finally realized on the 14th move -- when he moved his queen to b3 -- that he was only wasting his time. Had Utut been able to keep up with his opponent, he could have moved his column-a rook to c1.

Peng, whose elo rating is 2657, started to gain confidence after moving 14...Ekb6, then moving his knight from d5 to b6. However, Utut managed to keep pace with his creative moves.

Unfortunately, on the 40th move, Utut moved his king to e4 which enabled Peng to lead with two pawn moves.

"I still had 40 seconds... if I had thought for several seconds before making the move, I would have seen the small combination. I should have played 40.a3 and we still could have tied," said Utut, as quoted by Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) spokesman Kristianus Liem at www.ututadianto.com.

Peng finally won after the 74th move when his Hindia King defense saw one of his pawns on column-h swapped for a queen.

Utut will meet Peng again on Friday when he will play the black pieces.

Host India's young star GM Viswanathan Anand, whose elo rating is 2762, only managed to offer a draw to GM Viktor Bologan of Moldova on the 27th move with the Closed Sicilian defense.

Other top seeds also had to be satisfied with draws. GM Alexander Khalifman of Russia could only tie on the 33rd move of the Sicilian defense against GM Christopher Lutz of Germany. GM Michael Adams was also held to a tie by GM Dao Thien Hai of Vietnam on the 31st move of the Hindia Nimzo defense. GM Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine also drew with GM Jan Ehlvest of Estonia.

The round's winners were GM Alexander Morozevich of Russia who defeated GM Gilberto Milos of Brazil on the 38th move with the Sicilian defense and GM Boris Gelfand of Israel who beat GM Emir Dizdarevic of Bosnia on the 28th move of the Hindia King defense. (yan)