Sasikiran, Harikrishna stay ahead

Grandmasters Krishnan Sasikiran and Pendyala Harikrishna stayed ahead of the pack after garnering yet another point in the 17th round of the Bharat Petroleum 39th National 'A' chess championship in Nagpur on Saturday.

With 13 points each, they increased their lead over second placed Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua, who was held to a draw by Woman International Master Swati Ghate.

Hariskrishna, playing black against D V Prasad's King pawn opening, played the Sicilian defence. On the 24th move, when an ending with rook, bishop and pawn was reached, Prasad offered a draw, which Harikrishna refused.

On the 32nd move, Prasad gave Harikrishna a choice to exchange both the pieces and reach pawn ending, which Prasad must have judged as drawish. Harikrishna had, however, assessed the position as a victory for him and readily exchanged pieces. He won the ending on the 40th move.

It for the first time in this tournament that the players had a pawn ending.

In his game against IM Sudhakar Babu, Sasikiran, playing white, opened with his queen pawn against Babu's Nimzo Indian defence. Sasikiran got the upper hand from the opening and, on the 18th move, Babu sacrificed his knight for two pawns, defying Sasikiran to win the ending.

It took just nine more moves for the Grandmaster to force Babu's resignation.