Utut loses in world chess c'ships

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Grandmaster Utut Adianto suffered his first defeat at the world chess championships in Groningen, the Netherlands, Thursday.

Utut's defeat came in the first game of the second against GM Peter Svidler of Russia on the 44th move.

Utut, Indonesia's best ever chess player, is 50th in the world rankings with an elo rating of 2,615. Svidler has an elo rating of 2695.

Svidler, playing white, started the game with the Ruy Lopez opening and dominated until the 20th move.

Utut eventually managed to break Svidler's tactics and strategy on the 21st move. But on the 22nd move, Utut made a mistake by moving his King in the wrong direction.

Svidler retook the advantage and continued with a combination of moves which left Utut in a series of corners through the 44th move. Utut resigned and Svidler won the match.

Utut was disappointed over his blunder and said "I should have moved my King to the right. If I had played the correct move, I might have won the match."

Utut, however, acknowledged his defeat and admitted the Russian was the better player.

"Svidler is a tough player. I want to concentrate better in the return match on Friday (yesterday)."

In yesterday's return game even a draw could eliminate him from the championships. Utut's only real answer is to win.

Utut will play with the white pieces.

In other matches Thursday, GM Anand Viswanathan of India won over GM Predrag Nikolic of Georgia, GM Alexei Shirov (Spain) beat GM Julio Granda Suniga (Peru), GM Ivan Sokolov (Bosnia) defeated GM Vladimir Epishin (Russia), GM Andrei Sokolov (Russia) lost to GM Alexander Nenashe, and GM Alexei Dereev (Russia) drew with compatriot GM Michal Krasenkov.

Some 100 grandmasters are taking part in the world championships. The winner will face GM Anatoly Karpov of Russia. Karpov is currently the FIDE world champion. (lnt)