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Sasikaran in joint lead in Spain

International Master Krishnan Sasikiran of India drew an exciting game against Russian grandmaster Alexey Kuzmin on the top board in the ninth and final round of the international chess championship at Benasque, Spain, to finish fifth in the final standings.

The draw cost Kuzmin the title, while Sasi with 7.5 points in nine rounds won the award for the best junior of the event.

Kuzmin, adopting the Samisch variation against Sasi's Kings' Indian Defence, had a slight advantage in the complex middlegame that developed.

Sasi, who has had a brilliant run in this tournament, overlooked a a tactical operation by the GM and emerged a pawn down in the end game.

But the Indian in turn put pressure on the Russian GM, causing the latter to blunder and lose a pawn, leading to in a rook and bishop versus rook and knight endgame.

Sasi at this point seized the initiative, by weaving a mating net against the white king with his actively placed rook and bishop. However, in his haste, he missed a promising continuation, allowing the GM to escape with a draw.

In a dramatic final round encounter, the other favourite to win the title, Georgian GM Elizbar Ubilava was defeated by Argentinian GM Barbero -- which, in turn, allowed GM Cifuentes Parada of the Netherlands to take the title on the tie-break. Parada defeated British GM Stuart Conquest in the final round.

Final placings:
1-2: Cifuentes and Barbero (8 points)
3-6: Kuzmin, Georgadze, Sasikiran and Pavlovic (7.5)
7-17: Ubilava, Conquest, Granda Zuniga, Baburin, Zhaoqinpeng, Yves Ranola, Apicella, Felix Izeta, Marin Pogorelov and Jansa (7).

Earlier Story:

India's international master Sasikaran shot into the lead, jointly with five grandmasters, with a hard-fought win over Yves Ranola of Philippines in the eighth round of the Benasque Open International Chess tournament in Spain.

He now has seven points from eight rounds, as do grandmasters Ubilava, Kuzmin, Barbero, Cifuentes Parada and Conquest.

Sasi, playing white, employed the Torre Attack and gained an advantage in the middle game, thanks to lacklustre play by his opponent.

Ranola made the crucial error of allowing the Indian to position his rook on the seventh square, and was forced to part with two pieces in exchange for the menacing rook.

This led to an endgame involving Sasikaran's two knights and a rook. Despite the Indian, in his eagerness, making some elementary errors in the endgame, Ranola failed to take advantage and finally resigned on move 62.

P Konguvel, however, had a bad day, being caught out by Yugoslav Grandmaster Milos Pavlovic in just 17 moves. Playing black, Konguvel opted for the Petroff Defence but carelessly allowed his queen to fall into an elementary trap -- and with that, the material advantage swung so heavily in favour of white that the Indian gave up.

Konguvel now has 5.5 points in eight rounds, while Roktim Bandyopadhyay has six, Neelotpal Das has 5.5 points and so does Rahul Shetty.

V Saravanan, who had started the tournament in fine style, however lost his second successive game, this time against Lars Hansen of Denmark, and will now find himself out of the prize list.