Utut wins opening round in Biel Open

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Grand Master (GM) Utut Adianto of Indonesia scored an easy victory over Bogdan Bozinovic of Croatia in the opening round of the Biel Masters with an "s"? Open in Biel, Switzerland, on Monday.

The tournament features 114 participants from 28 countries. Among the participants are 25 GMs and 30 International Masters (IMs).

Utut, whose current elo-rating is 2574, stopped Bozinovic (2227) in 20 moves in two hours.

"Against Bozinovic, I pushed the Reti opening devised by my opponent into a Queen's Indian. His play was so passive that I managed to turn it into my victory," Utut said in a release here on Tuesday.

Utut, who has abandoned his post in the Indonesian Chess Association (Percasi) in order to increase his rating, said that the opening day did not see any surprises.

"All seeded players won," he said.

Utut has put in an impressive performance in Biel since his first participation in 1994.

He won the Open category in his first run, which earned him a place in the following year's Grand Master's competition. Against several highly ranked world players, he managed to finish in third place behind GM Alexei Dreev of Russia and GM Alexei Shirov of Spain.

Back home, Utut has stood out. He has been awarded an automatic place, along with GM Cerdas Barus, by Percasi in the team for the next Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Vietnam this December.

Percasi plans to send a team of six men and six women to Vietnam. Places in the women's team have already been given to Evie Lindyawati and Upi Darmayana Tamin.

A qualifying field is currently being held to select another four apiece in each category.

The men's contenders are Edhi Handoko, Tirta Chandra Purnama, Dede Liu, Salor Sitanggang, Susanto Megaranto, Awam Wahono, Hamdani Rudin, Cecep Kosasih, Anjas Novita, Danny Juswanto, Ardiansyah, Irwanto Sadikin, Ivan Situru, Tirto, Junaid Pamungkas and Iswar Ade.

The women's field comprises Lisa Lumongdong, Irene Kharisma Sukandar, Yulianto Tjindarbumi, Susianah Handayani, Norasa Verdiana, Ai Zakiah, Stefani Dian Chery, Neiko Rasaki, Tuti Rahayu, Trihoni Nalesti Dewi, Sulung Wahyuningsih, Kadek Iin Dwijayanti, Imasniti and Endang Sriwulan.