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Sasikiran crashes to defeat

NEW DELHI OCT. 14. Grandmaster K. Sasikiran crashed to a 21-move defeat to second seed England's Nigel Short in the fifth round of Samba Cup chess tournament at Slanderborghus, Denmark, on Tuesday.

Following his first defeat in the 10-player round-robin league, Sasikiran remained on 2.5 points.

Top seed Vassily Ivanchuk (3.5 points), who drew with first three rounds, shot into sole lead after beating Denmark's Peter Nielson for his second successive victory.

Today, playing white, Sasikiran gave up his queen with a hope of getting a decisive kingside offensive. However, the ploy failed as Short returned the queen and emerged with an extra bishop pair on the board. Realising that his gamble had backfired, Sasikiran resigned at once.

In the earlier rounds, the third seeded Indian had drawn with International Master Davor Palo in 104 moves, followed by another draw against Peter Nielson in 19 moves before beating World Cup finalist and fifth seeded Uzbek Rustam Kasimdzhanov in 40 moves.

Sasikiran, who replaced Peru's Julio Granda Zunegu in this Category 16 tournament, drew his fourth round match against the former World junior champion Darmen Sadvakasov of Kazakhstan in 37 moves.

The results: Fifth round: Victor Bologan (Mol) (3) bt Davor Palo (Den) (1.5); K. Sasikiran (2.5) lost to Nigel Short (Eng) (3); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) (3.5) bt Peter Heine Nielson (Den) (2.5); Curt Hansen (Den) (3) bt Darmen Sadvakasov (Kaz) (2.5); Evgeny Alekseev (Rus) (2) lost to Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb) (1.5).

Fourth round: Kasimdzhanov drew with Hansen; Nielsen drew with Alekseev; Sadvakasov drew with Sasikiran; Short drew with Bologan; Palo lost to Ivanchuk.

Third round: Sasikiran bt Kasimdzhanov; Hansen drew with Nielsen; Alekseev drew with Palo; Sadvakasov bt Short; Ivanchuk drew with Bologan.

Second round: Nielson drew with Sasikiran; Short drew with Ivanchuk; Bologan drew with Alekseev; Palo drew with Hansen; Kasimdzhanov lost to Sadvakasov.

First round: Alekseev drew with Ivanchuk; Hansen drew with Bologan; Sadvakasov lost to Nielson; Kasimdzhanov lost to Short; Sasikiran drew with Palo.

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