The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Sasikiran wins again

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 23, 2005

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Sport - Chess

Sasikiran wins again

MOSCOW, FEB. 22 Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran raised visions of a decent finish after a disastrous start when the second highest rated Indian bulldozed Ashot Anastasian of Armenia in the seventh round of the Aeroflot International open chess tournament here.

After managing just half a point from his first three matches, it has been a remarkable comeback by Sasikiran who has now garnered 3.5 points in the last four rounds.

However, a finish anywhere near the top bracket looks extremely difficult for any of the Indians as Russian Andrei Kharlov, continuing with his career best performance, put it across compatriot Vladimir Malakhov and raced to 6 points from seven rounds.

Kharlov is followed by Emil Sutovsky of Israel and Sergey Volkov of Russia on 5.5 points each.

Sasikiran on 4 points is currently in joint 22nd spot and meets Chinese Bu Xiangzhi in the penultimate round.

First win for Ganguly

National champion and Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly recorded his first victory defeating former World women's championship finalist Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia.

However, there seems little hope for GM Sandipan Chanda as he once again split the point with Russian Dmitry Jakovenko.

In the `A2' section, GM Tejas Bakre succumbed to his second straight loss. The gainer was Oleg Aleshin of Russia who did well with white pieces.

International Master S. Kidambi was quite impressive in his victory over Guliev Logman of Azerbaijan and so were young guns Parimarjan Negi and Tania Sachdev who cruised past Ernesto Romero Fernandez of Spain and Weida Zhang of China respectively.

But the other Indian in the fray, Eesha Karavade could not hold her position together in tense moments and went down to Olav Sepp of Estonia.

In the `B' group, IM Dinesh Kumar Sharma drew his eighth round game with Sofya Zigangirova of Kazakhstan to move to 5 points. white pieces.

Important results: (seventh round `A1') (Indians unless specified):

Alexander Motylev (Rus, 5) drew with Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 5.5); Andrei Kharlov (Rus, 6) bt Vladimir Malakhov (Rus, 4.5); Alexander Khalifman (Rus, 5) drew with Viktor Bologan (Mda, 5); Sergey Volkov (Rus, 5.5) bt Valerij Filippov (Rus, 4.5); Mikhail Kobalia (Rus, 4.5) drew with Etienne Bacrot (F ra, 4.5); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 5) bt Ni Hua (Chn, 4); Vladimir Akopian (Arm, 4.5) drew with Alexander Riazantsev (Rus, 4.5); Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 5) bt Wang Yue (Chn, 4); Zahar Efimenko (Ukr, 4) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 4); Konstantin Sakaev (Rus, 4.5) bt Alexey Fedorov (Blr, 3.5); Vita ly Tseshkovsky (Rus, 4.5) bt Pavel Smirnov (Rus, 3.5); Alexander Areshchenko (Ukr, 4.5) bt Artyom Timofeev (Rus, 3.5); Krishnan Sasikiran (4) bt Ashot Anastasian (Arm, 3.5); Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus, 2.5) lost to Surya Shekhar Ganguly (3.5); Sandipan Chanda (2.5) drew with Dmitry Jakovenko (R us, 2.5).

Group `A2': Wang Hao (Chn, 5) lost to Vladimir Potkin (Rus, 5.5); Denis Khismatullin (Rus, 5.5) bt Ildar Khairullin (Rus, 4.5); Arsen Yegiazarian (Arm, 5.5) bt Vuacheslav Ikkonikov (Rus, 5.5); Evgeny Vorobiov (Rus, 5) drew with Davit Magalashvili (Geo, 5); Kostantin Lerner (Ukr, 5) drew with Rauf Mamedov (Aze, 5); Anton Shomoev (Rus, 5) drew with Leonid Yurtaev (Kgz, 5); Sergey Zagerbelny (Uzb, 5.5) bt Roman Ovetchkin (Rus, 4); Anton Filippov (Uzb, 4) lost to Sergei Dyachkov (Rus, 5); Manuel Perez Candelrio (Esp, 4.5) drew with Alexander Goloshchapov (Ukr, 4.5); Sergey Grigoriants (Rus, 5) bt Valeri Yandemirov (Rus, 4); Oleg Aleshin (Rus, 4.5) bt Tejas Bakre (3.5); S. Kidambi (4) bt Guliev Logman (Aze, 3); Olav Sepp (Est, 3.5) bt Eesha Karavade (2.5); Parimarjan Negi (3.5) bt Ernesto Romero Fernandez (Esp, 2); Tania Sachdev (2.5) bt Weida Zhang (Chn, 1.5). — PTI

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