The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Sasikiran settles for a draw

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Friday, Jun 29, 2007
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Sport - Chess

Sasikiran settles for a draw

NEW DELHI: K. Sasikiran’s valiant bid to force a victory proved futile against joint leader Sergey Karjakin in the ninth round of the Aerosvit chess tournament at Foros, Ukraine, on Wednesday.

In a 93-move battle that saw both players squander winning chances, Karjakin sacrificed a pawn on the 15th move to hold the edge. Sasikiran sacrificed a rook for a bishop but sill looked in trouble. However, Karjakin’s poor choice of a pawn move on the queenside, followed by dubious choice of moves on the 37th and 38th moves, left Sasikiran better placed.

Sasikiran missed a forced win in a sequence beginning from the 40th move. With both players under time-pressure, the complex battle gave Sasikiran another chance to clinch the issue around the 62nd move but he missed again.

Finally, Sasikiran had to settle for a draw. He continues to share the last spot with two others at 3.5 points.

In the longest game of the event so far, Ukraine’s Vassily Ivanchuk and Cuba’s Lenier Dominguez Perez drew in 136 moves.

In the day’s only decisive game, Spain’s Alexei Shirov tamed Ukraine’s Dmitry Jakovenko.

The results (ninth round): K. Sasikiran (3.5) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Ukr, 6); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 6) drew with Lenier Dominguez Perez (Cub, 4.5); Alexander Onischuk (USA, 4.5) drew with Peter Svidler (Rus, 4.5); Dmitry Jakovenko (Rus, 4) lost to Alexei Shirov (Esp, 5.5); Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Rom, 3.5) drew with Loek van Wley (Ned, 4.5); Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 3.5) drew with Sergei Rublevsky (Rus, 4).