Utut out for higher elo rating after Kallai win
Utut out for higher elo rating after Kallai win
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Grand Master (GM) Utut Adianto sought
to lift his elo rating yesterday after scoring a win in the
penultimate round of the Biel Masters chess tournament in
Switzerland on Thursday.
Utut beat Hungarian GM Gabor Kallai after 32 moves and needed
half a point more in his last match against International Master
Dejan Pikula of Croatia late yesterday to improve his current
rating of 2,610 by five.
Another victory would double the increase, giving Utut a
career high elo rating of 2,620.
Chess observer Kristianus Liem said yesterday that Utut's
Thursday success protected him from a possible drop to his
rating. A defeat to Pikula, whose rating is 2,470, would mean a
zero growth for Utut.
"I believe Utut is out to seal the tournament with a win, not
just a draw," said Kristianus, who is also the spokesman for the
Indonesian Chess Association.
Badly needing a win to open his bid of retaining his Biel
title, Utut, the 1994 winner and runner-up last year, confounded
Kallai with a Meraner opening variant on Thursday.
Kallai quickly found himself under mounting pressure from
Utut, who played white. A nervous Kallai blundered in the 15th
move, allowing Utut to dominate the rest of the game, which
lasted three hours and 40 minutes.
"I chose the Meraner variant because I knew Kallai was not
familiar with it," Utut said afterward.
The Indonesian has now collected 7.5 points, still half a
point behind leader Milos Pavlovic, who beat Swiss first seed
Vadim Milov in another game Thursday.
Pikula was another point behind Utut after beating Hans Juerg
Kaenel of Switzerland, enabling him to share sixth place with
Vladimir Tukmakov of Ukraine and Tomas Polak of the Czech
Republic.
Germany's Oliver Niklasch and Dejan Antic produced the biggest
upsets of the day when they toppled Hungarian Lajos Portisch and
Yugoslav Dragoljub Ciric, who are among the tournament's top
seeds.
Other results Thursday included: IM Alexander Mikhailevsky-GM
Zurab Sturua 0.5-0.5, Polak-GM Vladimir Tukmakov 0.5-0.5, GM Ivan
Nemet-IM Alexander Cherniaev 0.5-0.5, and IM Abhijit Kunte-Yoav
Lederer 0.5-0.5.
After the Biel Masters, Utut will fly to Kosalin in Poland to
play in the Kosalin Open from Aug. 3 to Aug. 13. (lnt)