your table structure does not seem suitable for an exists query. "IN" querys were never ever optimised.
Here is proper syntax for EXISTS: SELECT * FROM TABLE1 WHERE( EXISTS ( SELECT * FROM TABLE2 WHERE( TABLE1.KEY1 = TABLE2.KEY1 ) AND( TABLE1.KEY2 = TABLE2.KEY2 ))) ie. there needs to be matching indexes for optimization. Although why don't you do the below instead? SELECT L.* FROM ARTICLE_CONTENTTREE_LINK L JOIN ARTICLE A ON( A.DEFINEID = 112435 ) AND( A.RELID = L.ARTICLEID ) Kind Regards, Robert.