The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Wells holds Sasikiran

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 28, 2005

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Sport - Chess

Wells holds Sasikiran

GIBRALTAR, JAN. 27. India's K. Sasikiran was held to a draw by British GM Peter Wells in the second round of the master's section of Gibtele.com Chess Festival here on Thursday.

Meanwhile, top-seeded GM Alexei Shirov of Spain registered his first win in the event, beating Marc Cazelais of Canada.

Nine players, including former World Junior champion Levon Aronian of Armenia, sixth seed Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria and seventh seed Boris Avrukh of Israel, jointly lead the table with two points.

Sasikiran was in definite trouble against Wells, who opted for one of the main variations against the Semi-Slav Defence.

Wells made continuous progress on both flanks and only the exchange of pawns at regular intervals helped Sasikiran maintain the balance.

Wells even weakened Sasikiran's King side, but the Indian found a correct defence in time to settle for a draw after 43 moves.

Shirov lucky

Shirov was quite lucky to score a win over Cazelais. The high-profile Latvian-born was up against the Alapin Sicilain with his black pieces and converted to a structure similar to the French defence in the middle game.

However, Cazalais maintained the balance and arrived at a completely drawn queen and minor piece endgame. However, the experienced Shirov capitalised on a blunder committed by Cazelais to win the king and pawn endgame in 43 moves.

In other important games, Aronian beat Sergey Erenburg, while second seed Alexey Dreev was held to a draw by Jonathan Speelman of England.

Important results (round two): Alexey Dreev (Rus, 1.5) drew with Jonathan Speelman (Eng, 1.5); Sergey Erenburg (Isr, 1) lost to Levon Aronian (Arm, 2); Peter Wells (Eng, 1.5) drew with Sasikiran (Ind, 1.5); Kiril Georgiev (Bul, 2) beat Chris Ward (Eng, 1); Pia Cramling (Swe, 1) lost to Boris Avrukh (Isr, 2); Daniel Gormally (Eng, 1.5) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 1.5); Gabriel Sargissen (Arm, 2) beat Mohamed Al Sayed (Qat, 1); Iweta Radzeiwicz (Pol, 1) lost to Zahar Effimenko (Ukr, 2); Kateryna Lahno (Ukr, 1) lost to Kevin Spraggett (Can, 2); Vasilios Kotronias (Gre, 2) beat Almira Skripchecnko (Mda, 1); Arakh Amia Grant-Ketevan (Sco, 1) lost to Alexander Areshchenko (Ukr, 2); Evgeny Postny (Rus, 1) lost to Gary Quillan (1); Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 1) drew with Hicham Hamdouchi (Mar, 1.5); Pavel Tregubov (Rus, 1) drew with Hamad Al-Tamimi (Qat, 1.5); Marc Cazelais (Can, 1) lost to Alexei Shirov (Esp, 1.5). — PTI

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