Utut ends chess meet joint second
Utut ends chess meet joint second
JAKARTA (JP): After 34 see-saw moves, Indonesia's number one
chess player Utut Adianto and Belgium's Mikhail Gurevich finally
realized the inertia they were in and agreed to end the Gunadharma
International Chess Tournament's last round with a shared point
yesterday.
Utut, despite playing with the white pieces and being very
familiar with Gurevich's Queen's Gambit defense, found himself so
bogged down that on the 14th move he became impatient and
employed his knight in attack. But Gurevich immediately answered
the maneuver with a rook riposte which turned on his c file and
thus kept the battle in the balance.
On the 23rd move, both tried a series of heavyweight exchanges
to break the deadlock. It still took them 11 further moves before
they accepted they had to draw.
With the result, Utut, together with grandmasters Eugene Torre
of the Philippines and Michael Krasenkow of Poland, finished
second with 5.5 points, behind Lajos Portisch, who came first
with 6.5 after drawing with Torre on the 30th move yesterday.
According to tournament director Bunawan, these results mean
that Utut and Krasenkow's present elo rating, 2,605, will
increase by five. Portisch and Torre will have their elo ratings
of 2,600 and 2,535 respectively, raised by 15.
In other matches, Krasenkow beat Ivan Sokolov of Bosnia-
Herzegovina after 24 moves on a Gruenfeld defense; Utut's
compatriot and wild card entrant Ruben Gunawan drew with Lubomir
Ftacnik of Slovakia on the 20th move on an English defense; and
Germany's Joerg Hickl lost to the other Indonesian wild card
entrant Dede Liu on the 46th move on a Reti defense.
Bunawan, who is also chairman of the Gunadarma University
chess club, said it was good for Utut to finish second because
the 13-rated tournament, which means that only those with elo
ratings of at least 2,551 are allowed to take part, is a tough
tournament.
"Winning is very difficult. For instance, Hickl, who shared
first place with Utut in the BNI chess tournament here in July,
came bottom with only two points," Bunawan added. (arf)