The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Another creditable draw for Sasikiran

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Saturday, May 12, 2007
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Sport - Chess

Another creditable draw for Sasikiran

NEW DELHI: K. Sasikiran pulled off a creditable draw against joint-leader and two-time World junior champion Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the second round of the Mtel Masters chess tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Friday.

On a day when all three boards ended in draws, Sasikiran faced an unusual opening reply from the Azerbaijan player before proving equal in 52 moves in what was the first ever encounter between them.

Sasikiran now faces last year's runner-up Gata Kamsky, who opened his account with a 46-move draw in Slav Defence against Romania's Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. Nisipeanu leads with 1.5 points.

Veselin Topalov and Michael Adams produced their 16th draw in 32 head-to-head encounters after 49 moves in Queen's Indian.

The results (second round): K. Sasikiran (1) drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 1); Veselin Topalov (Bul, 0.5) drew with Michael Adams (Eng, 1); Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Rom, 1.5) drew with Gata Kamsky (USA, 0.5).

Third round pairings: Kamsky-Sasikiran; Adams-Nisipeanu; Mamedyarov-Topalov.

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