Utut scores first win at Gunadarma tournament
JAKARTA (JP): After three draws and one loss, Indonesia's number one chess player Utut Adianto notched up his first win at the Gunadarma International Grandmaster Chess Tournament on Saturday.
The 31-year-old grandmaster easily outwitted his opponent and friend, international master Ruben Gunawan, on the 28th move, after Ruben blundered on the 12th move.
Utut, who developed the King's Indian defense of the Samisch variance, said that the blunder cost Ruben dearly and gave him ample room to position his resources for a great battle in the next three steps.
Unprepared for the battle, Ruben tried to defend his pieces as hard as he could, but the exchange of Utut's bishop with Ruben's knight on the 15th move eroded Ruben's strengths so much that he had to admit defeat 13 steps later.
The win did not affect Utut's standing very much. Utut placed third in the standing table with 2.5 points, behind Lajor Portisch of Hungary with 3.5 points and Ivan Sokolov of Bosnia- Herzegovina with 3 points.
Portisch beat Michal Krasenkow of Poland on the 58th move on a King's Indian defense, after the two were involved in a series of fierce attempts to occupy each other's strategic territories. The win earned Portisch 3.5 points and placed him on top of the standing table.
Eugenio Torres of the Philippines actually earned the same amount of points as Portisch, after drawing with Germany's Joerg Hickl on the day. Portisch, however, placed first because he still had a game against Ruben, which he won yesterday at the 41st move on a Slavia defense. The game was scheduled for Friday, but was delayed because Ruben had to sit for an exam.
In other matches, international master Dede Liu carved out another impressive performance when he managed to tie with Mikhail Gurevich of Belgium on the 28th move. Previously, Liu had successfully forced Sokolov, whose elo rating is 205 higher than his, to a draw. Sokolov himself drew with Lubomir Ftacnik of Slovakia on the 44th move on a Grunfeld defense. (arf)