Utut sees way to victory in blindfold chess game

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

GM Utut Adianto of Indonesia overpowered his female counterpart, world champion GM Zhu Chen of China, in a blindfold chess exhibition here on Sunday that was a prelude to the Makita- Lakoni International Grand Master chess tournament.

Utut chalked up a crushing win in each of the two games at the Graha Kita Karya building in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta.

Between games, a ceremony was held in conjunction with the official opening of the US$12,500 Makita chess tournament. The ceremony was attended Amien Rais, the speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly.

The tournament, which is scheduled to run from Feb. 16 to Feb. 25, will feature six participants: three Indonesian men and three foreign women.

Zhu, who won the world championship in 2001, brushed aside suggestions that the losses on Sunday would have a negative effect on her play in the tournament, saying it was her first serious game of blindfold chess.

"I have never played a serious game blindfolded. This is my first experience. I might just be lacking experience. I did play before, but just for fun," Zhu said after the second game.

Zhu praised her opponent, saying that Utut played a very good game.

In the exhibition, Utut and Zhu did not play their moves on the chessboard. Instead, they wrote their moves down on a piece of paper and let match officials move their pieces for them.

Without the chessboard in front of them, the ability to memorize and visualize each other's moves made the difference in the game.

The first game, in which Utut held white, saw an outright blunder by Zhu, which cost her the game.

Although Utut was slightly ahead with his control of space, their positions were generally equal until in 34th move when Zhu lost her queen, throwing the game to Utut.

Zhu was apparently not aware her queen was being threatened by Utut's rook on the e5 square.

"I thought it was on the e7 square. I did not read carefully," she said.

After taking the queen, Utut, who said he began playing blindfold chess in 1996, was unstoppable, winning the game in 42 moves.

Utut chose a Nimzo defense in the second game and was able to capitalize on a string of poor moves by Zhu.

"She did not make a fatal move. She just fell into many inaccurate moves. One of them was when she moved her bishop to b3.

"The consequence of that move was that her pieces and pawns became loose," said Utut, who pocketed home two-thirds of the US$3,000 in cash prizes on offer. The game lasted in 32 moves.

Utut and Zhu will be back on Monday, when Utut takes on fellow Indonesian IM Danny Juswanto and Zhu is paired against 2002 European champion GM Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria.

The other match will pit 16-year-old IM Susanto Megaranto of Indonesia against Asian women's champion IM Hoang Thanh Trang of Vietnam.