Utut's hopes crumble at Tripoli chess meet

Musthofid, Jakarta

Utut Adianto, who had entered the world chess championship in Tripoli with high hopes, crashed out in the second round on Tuesday.

The Indonesian grand master's expectation of moving ahead in the championship crumbled after he suffered a crushing loss to GM Vladimir Akopian of Armenia.

After holding Akopian in the first game on Monday, Utut failed to withstand the blistering attack by the 1999 championship runner-up in the second game on Tuesday.

The Tripoli chess is only the latest championship in which Utut has been ejected in the second round. He has had four major appearances since 1997.

He even exited during the opening stage in 1999 in Las Vegas, where Akopian arrived on the scene with a bang by getting through to the final before being stopped by eventual champion Alexander Khalifman of Russia.

The latest defeat has left Utut upset about the weakness of the challenge he posed.

"Playing chess at the world level is obviously not an easy task," Utut reported by e-mail. He said he had learned a lot from his game against Akopian.

Utut, who played the black pieces, knew that he was doomed to fail immediately after he made a long castling on the 14th move. He surrendered in 43 moves.

"A mistaken choice on the 14th move sunk me. What had looked a like a normal move turned out to be a disaster.

"And Akopian, the 1999 finalist, punished me with remarkable accuracy and machine-like precision. I should have played 14...Na5, and then we might have built a balanced position.

"Well, Akopian has taught me a valuable lesson -- that I have yet to master a thorough, world-class opening repertoire," Utut said.

Utut, who is 38, had earlier been confident after having spent ten days training with Tibor Karolyi, a renowned chess trainer from Hungary, as part of his preparations for the world championships.

But, instead of making it to the semifinals as he had hoped, he will now be traveling home after only the second round. He seemed resigned, however. "It seems that given my class, I have got as far as I can go. I probably only have a 3,000 cc engine, while a 4,000 cc engine is needed to play at the higher level."