Upset victims fight back to force playoffs in chess championship

Monday, Aug. 2, 1999 | 9:19 a.m.

Russians Sergei Dolmatov and Alexander Khalifman, Vlastimil Babula of the Czech Republic, Anthony Miles of England and Karen Asrian of Armenia bounced back in the second game of the first round, forcing Monday playoffs.

Each had lost or drawn in Saturday's first game, the first of two in a mini-match that comprises each round. The seven-round elimination tournament runs through the month at Caesars Palace hotel-casino.

Daniel Fridman of Latvia and Levon Aronian of Armenia, who scored upset victories in the first game, swept higher-seeded opponents to advance to Round 2, which begins Tuesday.

Another 22 players also advanced.

Yasser Seirawan, one the grandmasters commenting on the games, was particularly impressed by Fridman's victory over Utut Adianto of Indonesia.

In other play, Mihail Kobalija of Russia, the 73rd seed, upset No. 37 Nick deFirmian of the United States, while Christian Bauer of France advanced as the 79th seed with a second round win over the 43rd seed, Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan).

Favorites who advanced included: Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine); Xiaomin Peng (China); Vasilos Kotronias (Cyprus); Boris Gulko (U.S.); Goran Dizdar (Croatia); Aleksei Aleksandrov (Belarus); Jaan Ehlvest (Estonia); Vladimir Akopian (Armenia); Rogelino Antonio (Philippines); Magem Badals (Spain); Sergei Tkachiev (France) and Ulf Andersson (Sweden).

Other favorites moving on to the second round were: Joel Lautier (France); Jonathan Speelman (England); Liviu Nisipeanu (Romania); Matthias Wahls (Germany); Gilbert Milos (Brazil) and Ivan Sokolov (Bosnia-Herzegovina).

Hichen Hamdouchi of Morocco and Rafael Leitao of Brazil advanced with forfeit victories when their opponents, Imad Hakki of Syria and Amir Bagheri of Iran, failed to appear for either game.

Elimination was particularly devastating for Pablo Ricardi of Argentina. Ricardi outplayed his higher-seeded opponent, Speelman, and had the Englishman nearly ready to resign. However, Ricardi miscalculated and Speelman emerged from the complicated position with an extra bishop. Ricardi resigned.

In another tough battle Dibyendu Barua of India, the 72nd seed, tried to force a draw against 36th-seeded Khalifman but was forced to resign after a long endgame.

Barua had fought for 60 moves to secure an upset victory in Saturday's game. He and Khalifman will face each other in the playoffs.

Ten other matches are tied. Sergei Tiviakov (Netherlands) will face Dmitry Gurevich (U.S.); Pavel Kotsur (Kazakhstan) faces Dolmatov; Alonso Zapata (Columbia) will play Lev Psakhis (Israel); Alex Yermolinsky (U.S.) plays Kevin Spraggett (Canada), and Babula matches up with Tal Shaked (U.S).

Joel Benjamin (U.S.) plays Peter Nielsen (Denmark); Miles faces Ralf Akesson (Sweden); Andres Rodriguez (Uruguay) matches up with Asrian; Alexander Zubarov (Ukraine) plays Hannes Stefansson (Iceland), and Robert Zelcic (Croatia) faces Aleksey Dreev (Russia).

Meanwhile, controversy erupted after Vadim Milov of Switzerland arrived late Saturday and filed a protest after learning he had been charged with a forfeit loss for his first game. Milov said he had been told that he was one of 28 contestants seeded into the second round and made travel plans accordingly.

But the organizing Federation Internationale des Echecs had changed its pairings on Friday, forcing Milov to play in the first round. The problem was settled amicably when the appeals committee unanimously agreed with Milov and anulled his forfeit.

On Sunday, Milov beat Bartlomiej Macieja of Poland. The two will play another first-round game on Monday.

The championships are being held without the participation of current champion, Anatoly Karpov. Karpov refused to play, claiming he has the right to play the tournment winner for the world championship.

Garry Kasparov, a former FIDE World Champion, bolted from the organization in 1993. Kasparov is generally accepted as being the strongest chess player in the world. He claims that he is the actual world champion and will play Viswanathan Anand of India in a match for the title in the autumn of 1999.

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The score of Sunday's Round 1, Game 2, match between Fridman (playing white) and Adianto:

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 00 5.00 d6 6.d4 Nc6 7.Nc3 a6 8.e3 Rb8 9.Qe2 Nd7 10.Rd1 b5 11.Ne1 Na7 12.c5 b4 13.Na4 Qe8 14.cxd6 cxd6 15.a3 e5 16.dxe5 Nxe5 17.axb4 Bg4 18.f3 Be6 19.Nc3 Bc4 20.Qd2 Nb5 21.Nc2 Rc8 22.Nxb5 axb5 23.Ra3 Be6 24.Qf2 Nc4 25.Rad3 Bxb2 26.Nd4 Bxc1 27.Rxc1 Ne5 28.Rxc8 Qxc8 29.Rd1 Bc4 30.h3 Qa6 31.Qb2 Re8 32.Qc3 Rc8 33.Ra1 Qb6 34.f4 Be6 35.Nxe6 10