The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Sasikiran keeps hopes alive

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 02, 2005

Sport

Sport - Chess

Sasikiran keeps hopes alive

GIBRALTAR, FEB. 1. Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran bounced back with a finely crafted victory over veteran GM Pia Cramling of Sweden in the seventh round of the master's section of Gibtele.com chess festival here.

Having lost the previous game, Sasikiran came back into reckoning for top honours in this tournament that carries a total prize pool of over £15000.

Overnight leader GM Gabriel Sargissen of Armenia survived a few anxious moments before finally holding his forte against top seeded Alexei Shirov of Spain in a keenly contested game.

After settling for a draw in a position that offered some winning chances, Sargissen was joined by compatriot and former World junior champion Levon Aronian, Ukrainian Zahar Efimenko and a very lucky Emil Sutovsky of Israel.

While the leaders have 5.5 points each, Sasikiran is among a group of nine players with 5 points apiece. Three rounds still remain to be played.

In the next round Sasikiran will meet GM Kevin Spraggett of Canada.

Sasikiran was in top form against Cramling. It was one of the side variation of the Slav defence wherein Cramling simply did not get any counter play with her black pieces.

With routine yet emphatic manoeuvring, Sasikiran ensured that the black king remained under firing line even after the queens got traded early in the middle game and thereafter precise calculation by him led to a winning ending.

Realising that loss of a piece was inevitable apart from dangerous checkmating threats looming large, Cramling resigned in just 33 moves.

Important results (seventh round): Alexei Shirov (Esp, 5) drew with Gabriel Sargissian (Arm, 5.5); Alexey Dreev (Rus, 5) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 5); Lovon Aronian (Arm, 5.5) bt Vasilios Kotronias (Gre, 5); Boris Avrukh (Isr, 4.5) lost to Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 5.5); Zahar Efimenko (Ukr, 5.5) bt Kiril Georgiev (Bul, 4.5); Krishnan Sasikiran (Ind, 5) bt Pia Cramling (Swe, 4); Ian Rogers (Aus, 4) lost to Dianel Gormally (Eng, 5); Mohamed Al Sayed (Qat, 4) lost to Kevin Spraggett (Can, 5); Alexander Areshchenko (Ukr, 5) bt Kateryna Lahno (Ukr, 4); Colin Mcnab (Sco, 4.5) drew with Evgeny Postny (Isr, 4.5); Hic hem Hamdouchi (Mar, 4.5) drew with A.R. Saleh Jasim (Uze, 4.5); Jonathan Speelman (Eng, 4.5) drew with John Shaw (Sco, 4.5); Peter Wells (Eng, 5) bt Sergio Estremera (Esp, 4); Hamad Al-Tamimi (Qat, 4.5) drew with Gabriel Del Rio (Esp, 4.5); Chris Ward (Eng, 4) bt Arakhamia-Grant ketevan (Geo, 3.5). — PTI

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