Utut to compete in CSAS Trophy chess tournament
Utut to compete in CSAS Trophy chess tournament
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian Grand Master (GM) Utut Adianto has
been named one of three Asia-Pacific representatives for the
US$48,000 CSAS Trophy intercontinental rapid chess tournament in
Cap d'Agde, France, from Oct. 25 to Oct. 31.
Kristianus Liem, spokesman of the Indonesian Chess
Association, said on Thursday that Utut would join Vietnamese GM
Dao Thien Hai and GM Ian Rogers of Australia in the tournament,
which will boast the world's top 16 chess players from five
continents.
Asia's top player, Viswanathan Anand, refused to compete in
the quadrennial event, to be held at a small town near Marseille.
"We hope Utut will perform well in the tournament, although he
will face tough opposition," Kristianus said.
It will be Utut's second appearance in the chess meet.
Utut, smarting from a failure four years ago, has set his
sights on finishing among the best of four this time around.
Leading the field will be Russian world champion Anatoly
Karpov and defending champion Boris Gelfand of Belarus. Vasily
Ivanchuk of Ukraine, Alexei Shirov of Spain and Judith Polgar of
Poland, the only female competitor, will set out to strengthen
Europe's traditional stranglehold on the event.
Host France will feature national champion Josif Dorfman and
Ethiene Bacrot, the tournament's youngest player.
Alexander Shabalov, Yasser Seirawan, Alex Yermolinsky and
Gregory Kaidanov are likely to represent America.
The 16 chess wizards will be split into two groups for round-
robin matches. The top four from each group will qualify for the
knock-out second stage.
In rapid chess, a player is given 25 minutes to consider his
move and another 10 seconds to make a move.
Players earn $1,000 by qualifying for the tournament.
Qualifiers for the knock-out stage will gain $2,000 for every
additional win. The tournament winner bags $16,000, and the
runner-up half that amount.
Meanwhile, the Enerpac chess school will send three young
players Taufik Halay (11), Susanto Megaranto (11) and Andrean
Susilodinata (8) to the world age group championships at Oropesa
de Mar in Castelion, Spain, from Oct. 24 to Nov. 7, and the world
junior rapid chess tournament in Paris, from Nov. 14 to Nov. 18.
Title contenders in the age group tournament will be 1997
world youth champion Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, Alavi
Moghaddam of Iran, Wang Yue of China, David Baramidze of Georgia,
Gabor Papp of Hungary, Russia's Artiom Iljin and Evgeni
Tomashevski and 1996 champion Harikrishna Pantea of India.
The Indonesian trio will leave for Spain on Oct. 20. (lnt)