It will go down as a memorable day in the life of Krishnan Sasikiran. Sasikiran played like a man possessed to defeat top seed Viswanathan Anand in the second round of the World Cup Chess at the Ramoji Film City on Friday.Meanwhile, the second seeded Russian, Alexander Morozevich fell into the trap of Indias Surya Sekhar Ganguly. While Indian women took centerstage on Thursday, it was the turn of two Indian men to corner glory today.Sasikiran, playing Anand for the first time was speechless after the game. ‘‘Obviously it feels good. It is my first victory over a 2700 Elo-rated player’’, said the elated Sasikiran. Local hope P Harikrishna never really got his act going against Slovenian Alexander Beliavsky and lost without a fight. Harikrishna is virtually out of contention for the quarterfinal berth after having suffered two successive losses.In the distaff side, Koneru Humpy continued her good show with a victory over Dianchenko Stepovaia of Russia in 38 moves of the Queens gambit exchange variation. In another game between two Indians, Thursdays giant-killer S Meenakshi was held to a draw by Aarthie Ramaswamy. Other Indian women S Vijayalakshmi, Swati Ghate, Bhagyashree Thipsay and Dronavalli Harika were all forced to bite the dust by higher rated opponents.In the Reti opening, Sasikiran, playing white enjoyed a minor advantage. He improved his position and strengthened the centre. Anand sacrificed a pawn on the 18th move to break open the centre. Anand literally tried to confuse his younger opponent with that pawn move (e5). Sasikiran played confidently to overcome all late tactics of Anand and emerged victor after 53 moves. In the post-match analysis, Anand felt his 17th move Na6 was a blunder. Sasikiran said, ‘‘after that it was better for me.’’
