Utut unqualified for world meet

JAKARTA (JP): Utut Adianto fell short of taking one of the ten places for the 2001 World Chess Championship after managing to collect only 6 points at the Asian Cup, which ended in Calcutta, India, on Friday.

The Indonesian grand master won his last two games -- over Moradiabadi Elshan (Iran) in the tenth and Ziaur Rahman (Bangladesh) in the eleventh rounds respectively -- but the victories failed to lift his points total sufficiently. Utut finished in 24th place.

The failure means that Utut will not take part in the world event, to be held in Monte Carlo next November, for the first time in four seasons. Utut played in Lausanne, Las Vegas and New Delhi.

The other Indonesian contender, IM Dede Liu, stumbled to an even worse result, taking 4.5 points in 11 rounds.

GM Xu Jun of China won the tournament with 8.5 points, and was entitled to a US$12,000 purse. The runner-up position and a $10,000 prize went to GM Saidali Iuldachev of Uzbekistan, who was a half-point below the winner. (01)