Sasikiran lone Indian in second round

GM GN Gopal put up a heroic fight before losing to former world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov. Gopal, who had drawn both his classical games against his celebrated opponent, also managed to hold his own in the rapid games. Kasimdzhanov finally prevailed in the blitz games by a 1.5-0.5 margin.

Harikrishna made a disappointing exit from the World Cup when he lost his rapid tie-break match 0.5-1.5 to Chinese GM Zhao Jun.

Abhijit Kunte lost the rapid match 0.5-1.5 to Russian GM Vadim Zvjaginsev.

Commonwealth champion Grandmaster Nigel Short bowed out of the World Cup with a 0.5-1.5 loss in the rapid games to German Grandmaster David Barmidze. Russian Grandmaster Alexander Khalifman was another surprise loser. He lost the rapid match to compatriot Alexander Belov and had to make his exit from the tournament.

Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine made a strong comeback against IM Essam El Gindy of Egypt and advanced to the second round with a 1.5-0.5 victory in the rapid tie-breaks.

Evgeny Alekseev brushed off an early scare in his first classical game against Ismagambetov and won their match in the rapid games.

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran played well in the endgame to outwit his opponent when the clash was heading towards a draw. He obtained a slight advantage with the white pieces against the Queens Indian defence. The middlegame was hard-fought and Zivalgo prevented Sasikiran from making significant progress. The Indian continued to enjoy a slightly superior position in the endgame, but a draw seemed likely.

However, Sasi was in no mood to concede a draw easily and played inventively to force exchange of rooks in favourable circumstances. His knight proved clearly superior to his opponent’s bishop and the Indian GM won the game after a long tussle lasting 101 moves.

The second blitz game went without any difficulty for Sasikiran and he easily secured the draw to advance to the second round. Earlier, the rapid match between the two players had ended in a tie.