Utut moves to third place in MK Cafe Cup

JAKARTA (JP): Grand Master (GM) Utut Adianto of Indonesia jumped to third place in the provisional standings at the MK Cafe Cup chess tournament in Koszalin, Poland, following two straight victories over the weekend.

Utut rekindled his title hopes by collecting 5 points with three games remaining. The Indonesian, who shares third place with Zbynek Hracek, Igor Novikov and Kengis, all of whom are grand masters, now trails leader GM Igor Khenkin of Israel by just one point.

Khenkin wasted a chance to widen his lead after drawing with GM Edvins Kengis in Sunday's seventh round. Right behind him with 5.5 points was GM Sarunas Sulskis of Lithuania who defeated another Israeli, GM Emil Sutovsky, on Sunday.

Utut stopped local female grand master Monika Miroslawska after 32 moves in a match lasting three hours and 25 minutes on Saturday. Twenty hours later he nailed another success, but only after his opponent, GM Frisco Nijboer of the Netherlands, failed to survive a time crisis in the 64th move.

Utut said he was lucky to beat Nijboer. The Indonesian had never lost to a Dutch opponent before Sunday's tense game.

In the first 15 moves, both chess wizards opted for a careful game played on a Caro-Kann opening.

"In the 16th, Nijboer made a simple but effective move. I tried to neutralize him by using my queen-side pieces, but the strategy turned out to be unsuccessful," Utut said.

From that point on, Utut felt the pressure of Nijboer's pawn advantage.

However, the game went wrong for the Dutchman after he proved unable to maintain his composure under the strict times rules which apply in the tournament. Each player given just 10 seconds to make a move.

"The Caro-Kann I chose paid off," Utut said after the match. (lnt)