Sasikiran placed comfortably

COLOMBO, MAY 7. Grandmaster Sasikiran seems to have taken a liking for outclassing his opponents. The start for the Indian contingent in the Asian zonal chess championship has been flying, as expected, and after the third round of the qualification tournament for the World championship 2001, Saskiran leads the men's section with a perfect 3/3 score. The players had a rest day on Monday.

The women's event has already seen a few reversals and Pallavi Shah is in sole lead with three points. The major setback in this section has been top seed Grandmaster Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi's loss to Saheli Barua in the second round.

Sasikiran has been in superb form so far. His victories in the last two rounds have been particularly impressive, though the player was not personally satisfied with his first round victory here.

However, with games against other Indian Grandmasters Abhijit Kunte and Dibyendu Barua still to be played, Sasikiran has a tough job to perform. But he has already proved himself a few times when it comes to performing against strong opposition.

Kunte will have to work real hard to catch up with Sasikiran but the former has shown glimpses of brilliance in the three games played so far, though he has not been able to force matters.

Barua has not been in the best of forms but has it in him to strike back with vengeance. Pallavi Shah has been up to the task so far as her victory over younger sibling of the Subbaraman sisters showed on Sunday. Playing skillfully Pallavi defeated Meenakshi in a positional game while earlier in the day, her LIC teammate Swati Ghate found her tough to handle. The picture, however, is unclear. It always is when Vijayalakshmi is around. The subcontinent's sole Woman Grandmaster may be down but with six rounds still to be played, she is likely to fight back with her variety of attacking chess.

- UNI

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