KOZHIKODE, March 6: Krishnan Sasikiran, the 17-year-old Indian International Master, celebrated his great escape in Round One against top seed Adianto with a superb victory over IM Zia-ur-Rahman of Bangladesh in the second round of the Indian Independence Golden Jubilee GM chess tournament at Hotel Hyson today.GM norm holders and room-mates Abhijit Kunte and D V Prasad (both Indian Oil Corporation) settled for a draw by repetition of moves in 27 moves of Sicilian Taimanov. Prasad enjoyed a strong centre but he had conceded the bishop pair to Kunte in the process. At one stage, the players decided there was no clear path to go further and ended the contest. Zia employed the Chigorin Defence and sacrificed a pawn on the 16th move, which Sasikiran digested quite well. In a queen, rook and knight ending, Sasikiran created Queenside passers and simplified the position further to win in 33 moves. Utut Adianto of Indonesia survived a severe test from GM Pravin Thipsay of India who fell into his old habit ofrunning into time trouble and lost on time.RESULTSD V Prasad (India) 1 drew with Abhijit Kunte (India) 1.5, Thipsay (India) 0 lost to Adianto (Indonesia) 1.5, D B Barua (India) 1 drew with L Yurtaev (Kyrghystan) 1, P Konguvel (India) 0 lost to V Komliakov (Moldova) 2, Sasikiran (India) 1.5 bt Zia-ur Rahman (Bangla) 1, Murugan (India) 0.5 drew with Lanka Ravi (India) 0.5.
