Utut's hopes crumble at Tripoli chess meet
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."