Utut holds Shirov in 12th round

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian grand master Utut Adianto needed three hours to hold top seed Alexei Shirov of Latvia in the 12th round game of the Master Invitational chess tournament in Biel, Switzerland on Friday.

Utut, who took the advantage of playing white pieces, defied his inferior elo rating to keep even with his world number seven opponent. He exploited his favorite King Indian opening to maintain his attacking game.

However, Shirov, whose elo rating of 2,690 outshines Utut's 2,590, defended strongly and avoided making unnecessary mistakes as Utut attempted a number of tricky moves.

Utut gained a pawn advantage after 15 moves, but Shirov managed to force a complicated end-game. After 27 moves, the Indonesian had no more strong pieces to scare Shirov, and immediately accepted the Latvian's offer of a draw.

"I did my best but he was so strong," Utut said after the nerve-racking game. "I'm quite satisfied with a draw," he added.

The draw kept Utut in the second place of the provisional standings along with Shirov and Belarusian Boris Gelfand, who also managed an equal ending with Germany's Stefan Kindermann. The three have collected seven points each, and all are one point behind leader Alexei Dreev from Russia.

All but one of the seven matches on Friday ended with a draw. Home favorite Lukas Brunner beat Briton Julian Hodgson to become the only player to score a win.

Utut now has only a slim chance of winning the US$40,000 championship as he plays his final round match against Vadim Milov. Dreev, who was held by Jan Timman of the Netherlands on Friday, needs only a draw to claim the title.

"I'm not going to give up the title until the game is over. There is going to be a miracle tomorrow," forewarned Utut. (amd)

Results Dreev - Timman 0.5 - 0.5 Gelfand - Kindermann 0.5 - 0.5 Zvjaginsev - Tkachiev 0.5 - 0.5 Gravrikov - de Firmian 0.5 - 0.5 Campora - Milov 0.5 - 0.5 Utut - Shirov 0.5 - 0.5 Brunner - Hodgson 1 - 0