World Chess Cup: Adhiban to face Nakamura but Sasikiran knocked out

Tromso: Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran made his exit from the World Chess Cup, losing to Sergey Karjakin of Russia in the rapid tie-break games of the second round that concluded here. The highest rated Indian in the fray got into some problems in late stages of the middle game and lost the first round as black. In the return game, Karjakin, world number nine, held himself together and got the draw that was enough for him to move to the third round. [caption id=“attachment_1041113” align=“aligncenter” width=“380”]  There is only one Indian left in the World Chess Cup. Reuters[/caption] Grandmaster B Adhiban, who eliminated Evgeny Alekseev of Russia and Alexander Fier of Brazil in the first two rounds, will meet highly regarded Hikaru Nakamura of United States in the third round of this USD 1.6 million prize money event that started with 128 players and is now down to last 32. Adhiban is now the last remaining Indian in the fray. National champion G Akash and Grandmaster Parimajran Negi were eliminated in the first round itself. The upset galore continued and former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine was shown the exit door by young Russian Grandmaster Daniil Dubov while local star Jon Ludvig Hammer accounted for David Navara of Czech Republic. Russia had no troubles in cruising past compatriot Mikhail Kobalija, defending champion Peter Svidler of Russia won against Moldovan Grandmaster Alexander Bologan and American Gata Kamsky outclassed Russian Alexander Shimanov. It turned out to be a bad first game for Sasikiran in the tie-breaker played with 25 minutes and ten seconds addition. The Indian went for the Ruy Lopez and gave Karjakin a small advantage out of the opening. Karjakin returned the favour and just when it looked that Sasikiran’s position was in control, he erred to land in a completely lost position. The game lasted 42 moves. In the return game, Sasikiran tried hard to make a foray on the queen side out of a Nimzo Indian defense realised the compensation was not enough. The game was soon draw vide repetition of moves. Dubao was involved in the most interesting duel of the day that lasted till the Armageddon blitz game. After eight draws, Dubov, 17, had white piece in a must-win situation and he came up with a sterling performance against one of the most successful knockout format player in the world. Important and Indian results Round 2: Evgeny Tomashevsky (Rus) beat So Wesley (Phi) 1.5-0.5; Alexander Morozevich (Rus) beat Rafael Leitao (Ger) 1.5-0.5; Gata Kamsky (Usa) beat Aleksandr Shimanov (Rus) 3-1; Alexei Shirov (Lat) lost to Wei Yi (Chn) 0.5-1.5; Alexander Grischuk (Rus) beat Dariusz Swiercz (Pol) 1.5-0.5; Krishnan Sasikiran (Ind) lost to Sergey Karjakin (Rus) 1.5-2.5; Fabiano Caruana (Ita) beat Yu Yangyi (Chn) 1.5-0.5; Julio Granda Zuniga (Per) beat Peter Leko (Hun) 1.5-0.5; Anish Giri (Ned) beat Li Chao (Chn) 2-0; Leinier Dominguez Perez (Cub) beat Alexander Onischuk (Usa) 1.5-0.5; Ray Robson (Usa) lost to Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) 0-2; Hikaru Nakamura (Usa) beat Eltaj Safarli (Aze) 1.5-0.5; B Adhiban beat Alexandr Fier (Bra) 1.5-0.5; Anotn Korobov (Ukr) beat Baadur Jobava (Geo) 3-1. Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) beat Mikhail Kobalija (Rus) 2.5-1.5. PTI