Utut moves into second round

JAKARTA (JP): Grandmaster Utut Adianto of Indonesia advanced to the second round of the FIDE World Chess Championships in the Dutch town of Groningen after defeating China's number one player GM Wang Zili Wednesday night, Antara reported.

Playing black in the second game, he used the Karo Kann defense to deter Wang's ferocious attacks and win the tie 2-0.

Knowing that he had to win the second game to stay alive in the competition, Wang threw every piece forward to pierce through Utut's defense, but the Indonesian rose majestically to the challenge each time.

After three-and-a-half hours, Utut forced the frustrated Wang into resigning on the 36th move.

"I guess you could say that he was a Karo Kann victim. He got frustrated trying to pierce my multilayer defense," Utut said.

"Fortunately, I kept my calm and held my ground and waited for my chance. I could have lost my patience and let him steamroller me," he said.

Wang went all out, almost to the point of resorting to a kamikaze approach, Utut recalled. "He had no other choice," he added.

With the victory, the 32-year-old Indonesian, with an elo rating of 2610, has pocketed US$12,000 in prize money, and was scheduled to play against GM Peter Svidler of Russia (elo rating 2,660) last night.

"I'm not afraid of Svidler. He may be the tournament favorite, but he has to beat me first to move into the third round," Utut said.

Svidler, three-time Russian champion, had a bye in the first round. In October he defeated the Professional Chess Association world champion GM Garry Kasparov.

Utut said his 24-year old Russian opponent was highly skilled and was known to be aggressive, especially when playing white.

"Just pray for me that I will defeat him," Utut said. (emb)