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span class="caption" style="width: 141px;">Utut Adianto. JP/P.J. LeoAfter rounding off his chess career with outstanding results compared to his Indonesian peers, Utut Adianto is now looking to conjure further impact off the board as he leads a lawmakers’ group for bilateral cooperation with Slovakia.

He said many fields of interest, including sport, were worth pursuing in cooperation with Slovakia.

“After breaking away from Czechoslovakia, Slovakia has developed into an advanced country, including in the field of sport,” he said on the sidelines of a Ramadhan gathering at the official retreat of the Slovakian Ambassador to Indonesia, Stefan Rozkopal, over the weekend.

He applauded the Slovakian chess players he played. “Slovakia is among those European countries with good chess players,” he said.

Utut dominated Indonesian chess for decades before the emergence of Susanto Megaranto, the chess prodigy he has helped mentor. Utut became the only Indonesian chess master to have played in the World Cup before Susanto managed to follow, now playing in the ongoing tournament in Russia.

After his last tournament, which he won in North Korea in 2003, Utut retired from competitive chess, although he did not rule out a comeback. However, now that he has become a lawmaker, Utut must go beyond chess.

Being the leader of a group of lawmakers with the task of strengthening cooperation with Slovakia in inter-parliamentary relations, Utut must prove that he also has power off the board in convincing his partners that Indonesia has a good deal to offer the cooperation.

“We are looking to cooperate further in energy and infrastructure,” he said. Utut and Rozkopal think similarly about the need to push the legislative role in bilateral relationships.

“Legislative bodies are very important for us because they are directly elected by the people. They are powerful and they could influence people in Indonesia and Slovakia by sharing knowledge and experience,” Rozkopal said.

Rozkopal said that inter-parliamentary relations would further strengthen cooperation in other field of interests.

“We have several interests. The most important is energy. We have experience in this field and we would like to help Indonesia in power plants,” he said, adding that the second priority to pursue in cooperation was infrastructure.

He said the planned visit by Slovokian President Ivan Gasparovich in early October was expected to finalize the agreements.

Rozkopal, who cherishes Slovakia’s historic win over Italy in the World Cup in South Africa, said that both countries could exchange experience in their respective sports.

“Slovakia can share its knowledge in football while Indonesia can give contributions in badminton. We do have many badminton fans in Slovakia,” he said.

Gasparovich’s visit will coincide with the Women’s Indonesian Open chess championship from Oct. 12 to 20, where Regina Pokorna of Slovakia will play. It will be her third appearance in Indonesia after her participation in the Gunadarma and Japfa tournaments.

Utut said he rarely plays chess now since becoming a House member, representing the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P). He said he was too busy with his legislative work.

He has expressed interest in returning to the game, but at the moment he has more important pursuits.

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