Utut plays well but RI bows out to Belarus

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Grand Master Utut Adianto played outstandingly against Belarus in the 12th round of the 34th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul on Thursday.

Unfortunately, his result did not help the country's overall ranking as it dropped to 59th place from 45th on Wednesday after losing 1.0-3.0 Victory Points (VPs).

Utut surprisingly upset Belarus Grand Master Alexei Fedorov, whose elo rating is 2639 and world ranking 44, 1.0-0.0 in the 35th move in the first board.

But his three compatriots failed to follow in his footsteps and had to bow out to their contenders in other boards.

Edhi Handoko had to bow out to Aleksej Aleksandrov 0.0-1.0 in the 33rd move while Danny Juswanto showed little promise against Andrei Kovalev before losing 0.0-1.0 in the 51st move.

Rudin Hamdani had to work hard before he finally lost to Viacheslav Dydyshko 0.0-1.0 in the 66th move.

Indonesia still has a chance to improve its overall standing as it will face the Faroe Islands in Friday's 13th round.

Russia still tops the standing with a total of 34.0 VPs after defeating Armenia 2.5-1.5. Germany follows in second place with a total of 32.0 VPs after beating the United States of America 3.0.

Hungary took over third place from Ukraine thanks to its 2.5 VPs victory over Bulgaria that gave the country a total of 30.5 VPs. Ukraine collected the same number of points but dropped into fourth place.

In the women's event, Indonesia also crashed in its match against Iran. Upi D. Tamim won her encounter against Mona Mahimi 1.0-0.0 in the 28th move but teammate Ai Zakiah had to bow out to Atousa Pourkashiyan 0.0-1.0 in the 34th move. Evi Lindiawati also lost to Shirin Navabi 0.0-1.0 in the 31st move.

So far, Indonesia is in 65th position while Iran is seven places higher in 58th place. Indonesia is scheduled to meet Iceland on Friday.

China still leads the standings with a total of 28.0 points followed by Georgia with 25.5 VPs and Russia with 24.0 VPs. (yan)