Sasikiran maintains sole lead despite defeat

Sofia:

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran hung on to his sole lead despite his defeat against a resurgent Gata Kamsky in the eighth round of the ongoing third MTel Masters Chess tournament.

Playing white, it turned out to be a bad day in the office for Sasikiran as he failed to hold his fort despite getting chances in a keenly contested game.

On the other hand, it was a great recovery by Kamsky who had been suffering at the bottom of the tables till just a couple of rounds back.

As things stand, despite the loss, Sasikiran maintained a slender half point lead over nearest rivals Veselin Topalov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Gata Kamsky and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, who all have four points each, while an out-of-sort Michael Adams is now tottering at the bottom with 3.5 points.

Nisipeanu, the Grandmaster from Romania, livened up things once again in the event defeating English Grandmaster Adams who continued to suffer from his blues for the second day running.

The other game of the day between hot favourites Topalov of Bulgaria and Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan ended in a draw.

With just two rounds remaining it looks a certainty that the winner will be decided only in the last round which would be a befitting finale to this category-20 event being played on a round robin basis between six players.

A just indication of this closely fought event is the fact that there is only one point difference between leader Sasikiran and last placed Adams.