Sasikiran Bows After A Fight

By Arvind Aaron

Krishnan Sasikiran exited from the FIDE World Cup 2007 after he was went down 0.5-1.5 to former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine on Dec 4 at Khaty-Mansiysk, Russia.

Sasikiran lost the black game in the opener and drew the white game after doing his best in a rook and knight ending. Sasikiran played his first world cup in 2002 at Hyderabad when he upset Vishy Anand in a group game. However, Anand has won the World Cup in 2000 and in 2002.

At Russia this time we had five players. P.Harikrishna was expected to do better but went down to a Chinese player in round one itself. G.N.Gopal offered a good resistance before Rustam Kasimdzhanov beat him in the second set of tie-breaks.Abhijit Kunte went down early to Vadim Zviaginsev in the tie-breaks after Tiviakov has eliminated Ganguly surprisingly easily in the same round.

Our best bet, Krishnan Sasikiran tried his best in the second game after Ponomariov played a great game with the white pieces to win on December 3. Sasikiran who was accompanied by GM Lev Psakhis of Israel as trainer packs his bags and will have to wait for the next world cup to make a break.

Indian interest in this World Cup is over but Sasikiran is one of the five players who was in the last 16 with a 26XX rating. Others were all 27XX. Notable performer is youngster Magnus Carlsen who made it to the last eight.

Sasikiran in Round Four

Sasikiran Enters Round Three

Easy Draw for Sasikiran

Sasikiran Advances, Other Indians Dont
 

Ganguly eliminated by Tiviakov

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