Utut, Seirawan draw in exhibition match
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's number one grand master Utut Adianto and American grand master Yasser Seirawan tested each other's acuity in a two-round rapid chess exhibition here yesterday.
The short games, which ended with draws at the 58th move in the first and the 63rd move in the second round, were part of their preparation for the other four-day duel sanctioned by the world chess body (FIDE). The results of the duel meet, slated to start today, will affect their elo ratings.
FIDE's latest elo ratings scored Utut, who won the Biel Open in Switzerland last August, at 2,520 and Seirawan, the 1991 U.S. champion, at 2,585.
Seirawan was coaching Jan Timman of the Netherlands during the FIDE-sanctioned world championship matches against Russian Anatoly Karpov here last year.
At the end of the warm-up games, Utut claimed he had a greater chance of winning in the second round. "But I'm short of time to convert my advantageous position into a victory," Utut said.
Utut dominated the queen-side column after Seirawan, who opened the second-round with the Slavia opening, blundered in the 23th move by moving his rook to the left in order to survive the time ruling.
This awkward positioning cost Seirawan one of his pawns. However, Utut could not capitalize on it and only managed to tie.
Given that it was Seirawan who had the advantage of playing the white pieces, "this result is enough for me, " Utut said of his failure to score a victory.
The demonstration, held at the Janur room of the Kelapa Gading Sports Club, North Jakarta, used the Bobby Fischer time control, which allows each player 20 minutes to finish each game with an additional amount of 10 seconds for each move.
Today's duel, scheduled for this afternoon at the same venue, will apply regular time control, where each player is allotted 40 moves in two hours, followed by 20 moves in one hour plus 20 seconds per move.
The winner will be the player who scores more than two points. If the scores are level after four games, the match will be declared a draw. The winner will get a US$3,000 cash prize and the loser $2,000. (arf)