Sasikiran splits point with Berkes

Paks:

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran was held to a draw by Grandmaster Ferenc Berkes of Hungary in the fourth round of the Marx Gyorgy Grandmaster chess tournament here. Grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi continued with his demolition act and downed top seed Emil Sutovsky of Israel to maintain his slender half a point lead over Zoltan Almasi of Hungary who had it easy against compatriot Peter Acs. With six rounds still remaining in the category-15 double round robin event between six players, the 74-year-old Korchnoi took his tally to 3.5 points out of a possible four and Almasi remained close behind on three points. Sutovsky was next in line with two points and another half a point adrift was Sasikiran on 1.5. Acs jointly shared the last spot along with Berkes both of whom have one point each in their kitty. For Sasikiran, things have not been working out well even though he could draw some consolation from an easy outing as black against Berkes who is struggling in the event. It was an English opening that failed to yield anything close to desirable for Berkes in the ensuing middle game as the Indian developed his pieces to arrive at a balanced position fairly quickly. A spate of exchanges starting from move 14 resulted in a level rook and minor piece endgame 10 moves later and the truce was signed after 33 moves when the players were left with just a rook, Bishop and three pawns apiece. (PTI)