Utut warned against slipup

Musthofid, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Utut Adianto cannot afford to slip up at the six-way Makita Grand Master Chess Tournament next month, where he will be up against lower-rated players.

"He must concentrate on the matches. He can by no means underestimate his opponents," Kristianus Liem, a chess columnist, told The Jakarta Post.

The Makita event, which will run from Feb. 16 to Feb. 25 in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, will have a total of US$12,500 in cash prizes up for grabs.

The event will feature six chess players -- three Indonesian men and three women from overseas.

The Indonesians are GM Utut Adianto, whose elo-rating is 2591, International Master (IM) Denny Juswanto (2505) and IM Susanto Megaranto (2458). The visiting players are Zhu Chen (2490) of China, Antoaneta Stefanova (2478) of Bulgaria and Hoang Thanh Trang (2447) of Vietnam.

The matches will be played in a double round-robin format, in which each of the competitors will face each other twice.

Kristianus said given the difference in their ratings and the different strengths of men and women, Utut should be able to defeat the women.

"But we are worried he might stumble if he is overly confident. If that happens he will suffer a drop in the ratings," Kristianus said.

Eka Putra Wirya from the event's organizing committee said that aside from their aim of boosting Utut's rating to 2600, it was also hoped the event would help Denny and Susanto obtain their second GM norms, the step before earning a GM title.

"This will be a good opportunity for them to obtain their GM titles. For Utut, he could find his way back to where he was before when his rating was over 2600," said Eka, the owner of the Utut Adianto Chess School, where the 16-year-old Susanto studies.

Being promoted as a battle of the sexes, organizers are expecting the Makita event to draw relatively large crowds for a chess tournament.