Sasikiran stunned

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of Chinese Grandmaster Bu Xiangzhi in the penultimate round and fell out of contention for a decent finish in the Aeroflot international open chess tournament here.

Russian GM Andrei Kharlov made another step forward for his first major international title as he settled for a quick draw with compatriot Sergey Volkov to take his tally to 6.5 points. With just one round to go in this $30,000 first prize tournament, Kharlov maintained his slender half a point lead over Volkov. Volkov was joined by Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine in second spot after the latter scored a scintillating victory over Israeli Emil Sutovsky.

As many as nine players including Sutovsky and top seede Tinne Bacrot of France are next in line with 5.5 points each in their bags while another pack of 10 players is half a point adrift. Despite his mediocre show, Sasikiran, remains the best performing Indian in this strongest open event of the world with four points as national champion and GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly (3.5 points) bowed down to Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova in the penultimate round game.