Utut draws with Sokolov in opener

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's number-one chess player, Utut Adianto, drew with Ivan Sokolov of Bosnia-Herzegovina at the 48th move on the first day of the Gunadarma International Grandmaster Chess Tournament here yesterday.

Utut, who has played Sokolov several times before, succeeded in forcing his favorite Queen's Indian defense.

Playing the disadvantage of the black, Utut, whose elo rating is 2,605, played cautiously. But so did his Bosnian opponent, whose elo rating of 2,670 outshines the 10 other participants in the tournament.

Eight grandmasters and two international masters are competing in the nine-round tournament which opened yesterday and will end on Oct. 24.

Of the eight grandmasters, Filipino Eugene Torre has the lowest elo rating, 2,535.

Ruben Gunawan and Dede Liu of Indonesia are the two international masters in the tournament.

In the other matches, Lubomir Ftacnik of Slovakia drew after 24 moves with Mikhail Krasenkow of Poland, who developed a Grunfeld defense. Krasenkow's elo rating is the same as Utut's.

Joerg Hickl of Germany, who shared glory with Utut in the BNI International Chess Championship in July, proved too strong yesterday for Lajos Portisch of Hungary. Hickl, despite playing the black, managed to outwit Portisch after 28 moves.

Torre won by outsmarting Mikhail Gurevich of Belgium at the 38th move. Like Hickl, Torre played black, but opted for an Indian Nimzo defense.

Under tournament rules, each participant must make up to 40 moves within two hours, then 20 moves in one hour and then all remaining moves in 30 minutes.

Cash prizes are worth US$15,000 in total, with the winner receiving $5,000, the runner-up $3,000, $2,000 for third, $1,000 each for fourth and fifth place and $750 each for sixth and seventh places, while the bottom three players will receive $500 each. (arf)