Utut stuns Alekseev in Tripoli

Musthofid, Jakarta

Grand Master (GM) Utut Adianto of Indonesia defeated GM Evgeny Alekseev of Russia to advance to the second round of the World Chess Championship in Tripoli, Libya, on Sunday.

Utut, who has an elo-rating of 2591 against Alekseev's 2616 went through on 1.5-0.5 points in two games in the knock-out tournament, which featured 128 players from around the world.

"We were involved in a tense and dramatic battle before I could stop him for a place in the second round," Utut reported to Jakarta by e-mail.

After his attacking tactical ploy ended in a draw in the first game on Saturda, Utut started the second game more aggressively in an all-out bid for a win.

The 38-year-old Indonesian employed remarkable restraint during the game. He won a pawn in the 41st move and took another in a later move before forcing the 19-year-old Russian into submission in 61 moves in four-and-a-half hours.

Utut's opponent in the second round is GM Vladimir Akopian of Armenia. Akopian (2689), who was a finalist in the 1999 championship, defeated Jose Gonzalez Garcia of Mexico on Sunday.

It is Utut's fourth appearance in the world championship. He reached the second rounds in 1997 and 2000 while he exited in the first round in 1999.

The top seeds had little difficulty in getting past their lower-rated opponents, with GM Vaselin Topalov, GM Michael Adams, GM Vassily Ivanchuk and GM Nigel Short each registering 2-0 victories.

The Tripoli chess meet is going ahead in the absence of reigning champion, GM Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine, who has opted to skip the tournament in protest at the tournament format.