Sasikiran bounces back

UDAIPUR, JANUARY 20: National Champion Krishnan Sasikiran kept his Grandmaster's norm hopes alive by beating International Master Reefat B...

UDAIPUR, JANUARY 20: National Champion Krishnan Sasikiran kept his Grandmaster’s norm hopes alive by beating International Master Reefat Bin Sattar of Bangladesh even as Chinese GMs Peng Xiomin and Xu Jun defeated two other Indians to jointly lead the field after the 10th round in the Asian Chess Championship here on Thursday.

Playing an energetic Sicilian Najdorf variation game, Sasikiran won a pawn with a tactical move and continued flawlessly to win a point. He now needs to win the final round to complete his GM norm.

Peng Xiomin outplayed young Pendyala Harikrishna with black pieces after launching a fluent mating attack while Xu Jun won a pawn early against National B champion Suryashekhar Ganguly in the queen’s gambit accepted variation to score an easy victory and lead the table with 7.5 points. Among the other Indians, GB Prakash lost to Zhang Zhong and RB Ramesh drew with Dao Than Hai.

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In the women’s section, woman GM Hoang Thanh Trong of Vietnam lost to Maria Sargeeva of Kazhakstan butcontinued to lead the table with eight points.

National women’s champion Vijayalakshmi’s hopes of a WGM title suffered a setback when she lost to Memedova of Uzbekistan. Vijayalakshmi played a complicated game in a desperate bid for victory but lost her queen and the game to her rival’s strong counter-attack.

Important results
Men: P Harikrishna (5.5 pts) lost to Peng Xiomin (7.5), Xu Jun (7.5) bt SS Ganguly (5.5), RB Ramesh (5.5) drew with Dao Than Hai (7), Zhang Zhong (7) bt GB Prakash (5), K Sasikiran (6.5) bt Reefat Bin Sattar (5).
Women: Hoang Thanh (8) lost to Maria Sargeeva (6.5), Bhagyashree (5.5) lost to Wang Pin (6.5), Vijayalakshmi (6) lost to Memedova (6.5), K Humpy (4.5) lost to Tatiana Sargeeva (5.5).

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