Sasikiran squanders chance of sole lead

SANGLI, FEB. 28. Grandmaster norm-holder Krishnan Sasikiran squandered a chance to take sole lead by a whisker when he let off GM Evegeny Vladimirov with a draw in the 7th round of the Sangli International Open chess tournament on Sunday.

Sasikiran, with 5.5 points, is in joint lead with four others - Vladinirov, Maxim Sorokin, Fominih Alexander, Safin Shurat - after the draw in a pawn plus queenless middle-game.

Vladimirov, playing white pieces, sacrificed a pawn in the Ruy- Lopez opening which was accepted by the National champion who warded off all white threats by playing precise defensive moves.

After the exchange of queens Sasikiran played a wrong bishop move allowing the white rook to create counter-play in the seventh rank which was enough for Vladimirov to save the game.

International Master Reefat Bin Sattar of Bangladesh stunned the highly-rated Russian GM Alexander Goloshchapov on an otherwise peaceful day of draws. Six out of seven top board games ended in dull draws.

Reefat gained firm control over the centre against the Sicilian three knights defence of Goloschapov and started kingside attack.

To create counter-play the GM sacrificed two rooks and a knight for the white queen, but the Bangladeshi IM played accurately and won comfortably with his extra material.

In another notable result, IM-norm aspirant P. Harikrishna held GM S. Yuldashev to a draw in a Tarrasch defence game.

Important results: E. Vladimirov (5.5 points) drew with K. Sasikiran (5.5), M. Sorokin (5.5) drew with A. Fominih (5.5), A. Kunte (5) drew with P.M. Thipsay (5), R.B. Sattar (5) beat A. Goloschapov (4), D.V. Prasad (4.5) drew with D. Barua (4.5), P. Harikrishna (4.5) drew with S. Yuldashev (4.5), R.B. Ramesh (5) bt E. Joseph (4), S.S. Ganguly (5) bt Ravi Kumar (4), Swati Ghate (4) lost to G.B. Prakash (5), N.S. Babu (4) drew with A. ShariazdaNov (4), A. Deshmukh (3.5) lost to I. Ibragimov (4.5), Z. Rahman (4.5) bt S. Shanaz (3.5), Dilip Pagay (4) drew with C.S. Gokhale (4), K. Humpy (4) drew with P. Konguvel (4), S. Vijayalakshmi (3.5) drew with R. Aarthie (4), J. Gallagher (4) bt J. Gokhale (3), Saheli Barua (4) beat O. Annageldiyev (3), V. Kamble (3.5) drew with A. Lahiri (3.5), Sriram Jha (4) bt S. Banerjee (3), Tejas Bakre (3) lost to D. Chakraborty (4).

- PTI

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