Utut likely to finish second in chess meet

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's number one chess player Utut Adianto is likely to finish second after the ninth and last round of the Gunadharma International Chess Tournament today.

Yesterday Utut agreed to cash in on an early draw with Lajos Portisch of Hungary on the 10th move after his favorite defense, Queen's Gambit, was accepted.

With the draw, Utut lies second with five points while Portisch is first with six. Eugenio Torre of the Philippines, who beat Utut's compatriot Dede Liu on the 58th move on a Sicilian defense, shares second place with Utut.

Today Torre takes on Portisch while Utut faces Mikhail Gurevich of Belgium, who drew with Ivan Sokolov of Bosnia- Herzegovina on the 16th move on an Indian Nimzo defense yesterday. Gurevich's standing last night was sixth with 3.5 points and Sokolov's was fourth with 4.5 points.

Portisch, who is unbeaten in the tournament, seems to be too strong to be toppled by Torre and, given their standings, Utut should beat Gurevich.

International judge Djamil Djamal said that if Utut draws with Gurevich today, his present elo rating of 2,605 will not be affected.

The other results yesterday were Lubomir Ftacnik of Slovakia drew with Germany's Joerg Hickl on the 46th move on a Queen's Pawn defense; Michael Krasenkow of Poland who beat Ruben Gunawan on the 32nd move on a Indian Bogo defense. (arf)