Corus chess: Sasikiran to meet Navara in 9th round

Wijk Aan Zee (The Netherlands):

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran will resume his battle in the ninth round of the Group 'B' Corus chess tournament against David Navara of the Czech Republic, after a rest day.

Sasikiran so far has had a forgettable outing, collecting just three points from a possible eight and need to pull up his socks in the remaining matches if he wishes to halt his sharp decline in ELO rating points.

With just one win and four draws, this has clearly not been Sasikiran's event. The Indian GM made things difficult with a draw against Alexander Motylev of Russia in the eighth round.

In Group 'C', world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta managed to revive his hopes after a dismal start till he went down in the eighth round against local star Friso Nijboer that saw the Indian slip to tied third.

However, not everything is lost for Abhijeet as he will be facing the lower rated opponents having already faced the higher ranked players.

Abhijeet, who is 4.5 points, nonetheless has his task cut out in his bid to catch up with leader Tiger Hillarp Persson of Sweden (six points).

D Harika too didn't have an impressive outing and is on four points from eight games. She started off with a win against Abhijeet but since then is still looking for her second victory.

Anish Giri, who has some roots related to India, has made his presence felt in Group C with a fine victory over Oleg Romanishin in the last round.