Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran bounced back into reckoning with a finely crafted victory over top seed Hikaru Nakamura of United States in the seventh round of the Sigeman and Co. chess tournament in Copenhagen.

With his third win in seven games, Sasikiran took his tally to 5 points out of a possible seven and was just half a point behind tournament leader Jan Timman of the Netherlands, who drew his game with GM Sune Berg Hansen of Denmark.

With just two rounds remaining, Sasikiran threw the tournament wide open just when it appeared that Timman was running away with the top prize.

After the seventh round, Nakamura and Dane Curt Hansen occupied the third spot jointly on 4.5 points and in the next round, the American was slated to play Timman.

For Sasikiran, things might just work out fine if he could capitalise on his white pieces against an off-colour Swede Tiger Hillarp Persson in the penultimate round game as in the last round he was also to play Timman.

The seventh round produced three decisive games out of five and coming closer to his final GM norm was International Master Davor Palo of Denmark, who gave an inspired performance to beat Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova.

The victory also helped Palo to catch up with Iordachescu and they both now have 3.5 points apiece for the shared fifth spot.

It turned out to be a day full of surprises for Sasikiran though the Indian deserved all the credit for keeping his poise and delivering the goods when it mattered the most.

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