Sasikiran, Morozevich in joint lead

Biel:

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran scored a brilliant victory over local hope Yannick Pelletier and joined top seed GM Alexander Morozevich of Russia at the top of the tables after the sixth round in the Biel International Chess festival. Sasikiran and Morozevich are now on four points each and former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine follows the leaders just half a point behind. Etienne Bacrot of France and Pelletier remained on 2.5 losing their games while Luke McShane crawled to 1.5 after a hard-earned draw with Morozevich. Four more rounds remain in this category 18-event being played on a double round-robin basis between six grandmasters. Sasikiran spends a lot of quality time on his opening preparation and it was on display in his near-effortless victory over Pelletier, who did not know what had hit him. Playing the black side of the Tchigorin variation of Ruy Lopez, Sasikiran followed routine theory and the position should have been level had Pelletier not allowed black to seize control with a thematic 19th move. "I got a good bind in the middle game. The initiative passed on after he allowed me the central thrust and the advantage soon became significant," Sasikiran said after the game. (PTI)