Sasikiran emerges joint winner

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran emerged as the joint winner after a quick draw in the final game against Jan Timman of Holland in the Sigeman and Co. chess tournament in Coepnhagen.

Sasikiran, who was in joint lead with Timman after the penultimate round, did not take any chances with black pieces in the final round and shared the trophy with the veteran Dutch GM in this category-13 event.

The Indian came good after a few disastrous performances in the recent past that saw him dip below the 2650 mark in Elo ratings in the last list issued by FIDE.

Sasikiran finished with four victories and five draws and would now add about 10 ELO rating points based on his performance in Denmark.

Things turned out even better for Timman who stands to gain about 15 ELOs, his first win in a long time.

The third place went to United States champion Hikaru Nakamura who downed GM norm aspirant Davor Palo in the final round.

After starting as the hot favourite, this was some consolation for the American as he would at least not be losing any points here.

Curt Hansen of Denmark expectedly finished fourth after a 23-move draw with compatriot Sune Berg Hansen. The game did not have much for the chess buffs as the former played it safe with white pieces in a Queen's gambit declined opening.

Jonny Hector finished fifth after proving superior against Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova. Within a fortnight of finishing joint second in the strong Dubai open chess championship, Iordachescu just could not match the Swede move for move in the engrossing encounter and went down in just 32 moves after blundering a rook.

Sasikiran was in no mood to take any chances against his highly-regarded opponent with black pieces.

The Indian was by and large satisfied with what he had already done and Timman also appeared not too keen for a long drawn battle. The result was a simple draw in just 11 moves from an English opening game.

Nakamura survived some anxious moments before putting it across Palo who needed a victory for his final norm.

It was an irregular queen pawn game that transposed to a position akin to the two-knights tango opening and Nakamura had to work hard to avoid giving white a decisive advantage.

As the first time control appeared, Palo failed to grip the position and instead paved way for Nakamura to work out a fierce counter attack in the centre and in just 33 moves the balance tilted in favour of the American.