Sasikiran finishes ninth in Aeroflot International open

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran defeated Sanan Sjugirov of Russia to finish ninth in the 'A' group of Aeroflot International open chess tournament that concluded here.

It was hard work for Sasikiran with black pieces in the ninth and final round as he had to win to be in top ten of one of the strongest open tournament in the world.

Mateusz Bartel of Poland won the title having the best tiebreak score amongst the 6.5 pointers after a three-way tie at the top was resolved.

The second and third spot was taken by Ukrainian duo of Anton Korobov and Pavel Eljanov respectively.

Sasikiran was the only Indian who finished among prizes in the tournament as the next best Indian was Abhijeet Gupta, who was tied for the 26th spot but had the worst tiebreak score on five points after drawing the last round game with Andrey Zhigalko of Belarus.

Amongst other Indians in the fray, Parimarjan Negi played out a draw with compatriot G N Gopal while Sandipan Chanda achieved the same result against Daniel Alsina Leal of Spain.

Vidit Gujrathi missed out on his final Grandmaster norm as he too played out a draw with Alexander Ipatov of Russia. Also missing the final GM norm was Vaibhav Suri who needed a win but drew his last game in the 'B' group that finished simultaneously.

Suri, however, emerged as the best performing Indian in this group after the draw with A Grishchenko of Russia. The youngster finished with six points in all and looks a sure bet for the Grandmaster title in near future. For the records, Suri tied for the ninth spot and finished 15th.

Also tying for the ninth spot but with an inferior tiebreak were P Shyam Nikil and M R Lalith Babu who also drew the last round game.

Sasikiran was involved in a complicated battle against Sanan who opted for the Scotch opening as white. After a tactical melee Sasikiran won a pawn and it was a long grind thereon.

Sanan did not put up the resistance needed in the pawn less endgame and Sasikiran slowly outplayed him. The game lasted 57 moves.

Indian results final round

Group 'A' (Indians unless stated): Sanan Sjugirov (Rus, 4.5) lost to Krishnan Sasikiran (5.5); Abhijeet Gupta (5) drew with Andrey Zhigalko (Blr, 5); G N Gopal (4) drew with  Parimarjan Negi (4); Sandipan Chanda (4) drew with Daniel Alsina Leal (Esp, 4); Vidit Gujrathi (4) Alexander Ipatov (Tur, 4); B Adhiban (3.5) drew with Alojzije Jankovic (Cro, 3.5); Ivan Bukavshin (3.5) drew with M Shyam Sundar (3.5); Marin Bosiocic (Cro, 2.5) lost to D Harika (3.5); Al-Modiahki Mohamad (Qat, 2.5) lost to M R Venkatesh (2.5)

Group 'B': Vaibhav Suri (6) drew with Sergey Grishchenko (Rus, 6); M R Lalith Babu (6) drew with Hovik Hayrapetyan (Arm, 6); P Shyam Nikil (6) drew with Hovhannes Gabuzyan (Arm, 6); Marina Romanko (Rus, 6) beat S Arun Prasad (5); Evgenija Ovod (Rus, 4.5) lost to Tejas Bakre (5.5); Deepan Chakkravarthy (5) drew with Firat Burak (Tur, 5); Sundararajan Kidambi (5) drew with Debashis Das (5); Vitaly Sivuk (Ukr, 5) drew with Diptayan Ghosh (5); Akshayraj Kore (4) lost to Vitaly Kunin (Ger, 5); Sahaj Grover (5) beat Eesha  Karavade (4); S Nitin (4.5) drew with Davit Petrosian (Arm, 5); Alexander Krapivin (Rus, 4.5) drew with Ankit Rajpara

(4.5); Soumya Swaminathan (5) beat Jan Emmanuel Garcia (Phi, 4); Swayams Mishra (4.5) beat Xu Huahua (Chn, 3.5); Ivana Maria Furtado (3.5) drew with Vasilij Gagarin (Rus, 3.5); Maxim Lavrov (Rus, 3.5) drew with Shardul Gagare (3.5); Nisha Mohota (3) lost to Padmini Rout (4); S L Narayanan (4) beat Mary Ann Gomes (3); Vladimir Chubar (Ukr, 2) lost to B Pratyusha (3).