JAKARTA -- Former world chess champion Anatoly Karpov of Russia notched three consecutive wins against Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman Friday in the 16th game of their 24-game match for the FIDE World Chess Championship.
The results gave Karpov a convincing five-point lead over Timman, who won on the 13th and 14th games. Karpov now leads 10.5 points to 5.5 for Timman, and inched closer to the 12.5 points needed to clinch the title.
Karpov came to Jakarta with a 7-5 lead over Timman from the first 12 games of the match, which were played last month in several cities in the Netherlands. Karpov won six of the games, Timman took one and nine were declared draws.
Karpov -- the world champion from 1975 to 1985 -- playing white, had complete control over the long and arduous games that lasted for seven hours. Timman resigned on the 59th move.
'From the beginning, we expected that Timman could win this game in order for the match to become more exciting, but he failed to do that,' said Indonesian grandmaster Utut Adianto.
Under the rules of the match, each player has two hours and 30 minutes to make 40 moves.
The International Chess Federation, or FIDE, title was left vacant in February when it stripped Russian Garry Kasparov of the crown and barred challeneger Nigel Short of England after they refused to play in Manchester.
Observers beleive Karpov would not ease his play in the next games, as he tries to add about 50 points to his current Elo rating of 2,760 points.
'The 2,810 Elo rating was the world's highest,' Adianto said. 'In addition to that Karpov would become the second person after (Garry) Kasparov to reach more than 2,800 points.'
Ardiansyah, another Indonesian grandmaster, commented that Timman had wasted his turns by moving on his queen and knights. but Karpov did not take advantage, instead taking chances by attacking Timman's position.
