Sasikiran wins Politiken Cup

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran added another feather to his cap by winning the Politiken Cup international open chess tournament at Copenhagen, Denmark, with a record score of 9 points out of a possible 11. Sasikiran's score is the best ever in the 25-year history of this event.

The Indian GM ended his very successful Danish stint yesterday with a draw against highly-regarded Grandmaster Artur Yusopov of Germany, who did not succeed in breaking the defences of the Indian in the final round game.

Just a fortnight earlier, the Chennai-based player had finished as joint winner in the North Sea Cup tournament at Esbjerg.

Sasikiran is expected to gain 10 international points and will be in the 2670 bracket in the next FIDE list. The win also made Sasikiran richer by 15000 Danish kroner (appr. Rs one lakh).

As many as 17 Grandmasters participated in the strong 258-players contest that started on July 14.

Sasikiran, who started as the third seed behind GM Alexander Belyavsky of Slovenia and Konstantin Sakaev of Russia, registered two important victories in round 8 and 9, over local stalwart GM Peter Heine Nielsen and Sakaev that brought him to sole lead. In the final two rounds, Sasikiran had worthwhile draws against Belyavski and Yusopov.

The other Indian Grandmaster in the fray, Koneru Humpy, lost the last round game against Carlsen Magnus of Norway to finish on 7 points, which was enough to fetch her the best woman player prize.