Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran played out a hard-fought draw with Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine to rise to the joint-fourth place after the fourth round in the Aerosvit International Chess tournament in Yalta, Ukraine.
After starting out with a victory over Alexander Onischuk of United States in the opener, this was Sasikiran's second draw on the trot following a loss to Dmitry Jakovenko of Russia in the second round.
Sasikiran opted for the Grunfeld defense with black pieces and went for a variation that came in to fashion recently. Eljanov was apparently not prepared for what he faced and his shying-away from routine manoeuvres gave Sasikiran an easy game.
However, as the game progressed, Eljanov got a semblance of advantage again but Sasikiran managed to deal with the problems without much ado. An exchange sequence led to a rook and pawns endgame and the peace was signed after 57 moves.
The result propelled the Indian to joint fourth spot from joint fifth overnight as one of the leaders Jakovenko found his nemesis in Loek Van Wely of Holland.
The day produced just one decisive result with Van Wely standing out tall for the second day running. After two disastrous losses the Dutchman coasted to another victory in style in what was clearly the game of the day.
With draws being the order of the day on remaining five boards, Alexei Shirov of Spain and Ukrainian duo of Vassily Ivanchuk and Sergey Karjakin remained in joint lead with 2.5 points to back them.
Sasikiran was next in the standings along with Van Wely, Onischuk, Eljanov, Jakovenko, Peter Svidler of Russia and Lenier Dominiguez of Cuba on 2 points while Sergei Rublevsky of Russia is on 11th positions with 1.5 points, half a point clear of Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania. Seven rounds still remain in the 12-player round robin tournament.
Van Wely played a fine attacking game to beat Jakovenko whose defensive technique was found wanting. The Queen's Indian defense by the Russian gave Van Wely a tangible advantage and he followed it up with a creative Knight sacrifice to launch a direct attack against the king.
After a couple of errors, it was all over for Jakovenko and he threw in the towel in just 28 moves.
In other games of the day, Svidler got the balance he was looking for against Shirov and the players decided to repeat moves to split the point in the middle game itself.
Sergei Rublevsky tried harder against Nisipeanu without much success while Ivanchuk's battle against Onischuk and Karjakin's duel against Jakovenko ended in peace in just 18 moves.
Results round 4:
Alexei Shirov (Esp, 2.5) drew with Peter Svidler (Rus, 2); Vassily Ivanchuk (UKr, 2.5) drew with Alexander Onischuk (Usa, 2); Loek Van Wely (Ned, 2) beat Dmitry Jakovenko (Rus, 2); Lenier Dominguez (Cub, 2) drew with Sergey Karjakin (UKr, 2.5); Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 2) drew with Krishnan Sasikiran (Ind, 2); Sergei Rublevsky (Rus, 1.5) drew with Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Rom, 1).
The moves: Pavel Eljanov v/s Krishnan Sasikiran
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Bc4 c5 8. Ne2 O-O 9. O-O Nc6 10. Be3 Qc7 11. Qc1 Bd7 12. Bd3 Rfc8 13. Rb1 a6 14. f4 cxd4 15. cxd4 Na5 16. Qxc7 Rxc7 17. Rfc1 Rxc1+ 18. Rxc1 e6 19. Rc7 Bb5 20. Bxb5 axb5 21. Kf2 Bf8 22. d5 exd5 23. exd5 Nc4 24. Bd4 Nd6 25. Nc1 b4 26. Be5 f6 27. Bb2 Ra5 28. Ke2 Rxd5 29. Nb3 b5 30. Rd7 Rh5 31. h3 Ne4 32. Kd3 Nc3 33. Bxc3 bxc3 34. Kxc3 Rh4 35. Rd4 f5 36. Kd3 Bg7 37. Rd8+ Kf7 38. Rd7+ Kf6 39. Nc5 Bf8 40. Rc7 Bxc5 41. Rc6+ Kg7 42. Rxc5 Rxf4 43. Rxb5 Rf2 44. g4 Kf6 45. gxf5 gxf5 46. Ke3 Rxa2 47. Kf4 Ra4+ 48. Kg3 Kg5 49. h4+ Kg6 50. Rb6+ Kg7 51. Rb7+ Kg6 52. Rb6+ Kh5 53. Rf6 Rg4+ 54. Kf3 Kxh4 55. Rxf5 h5 56. Kf2 Rg8 57. Ra5 game drawn.
