Caruana`s loss at AAI Chess

New Delhi: Czech Republic`s national champion Viktor Laznicka ended Fabiano Caruana`s unbeaten run to give India`s Krishnan Sasikiran an outside chance to top the table in the AAI Grandmasters Chess tournament on Friday.

Sasikiran played out a draw with teammate Parimarjan Negi moments before Laznicka stunned Caruana in the ninth and penultimate round of the tournament. In the final game, Wesley So and Hou Yifan drew in 47 moves of a Catalan. Sasikiran`s draw took him to 5.5 points after a painful start that saw him lose the first two games. He has not lost thereafter and had four wins and three draws. With Caruana at 6.5 points, Sasikiran has a chance but for that, he needs to beat Hou and hope Caruana loses to Wesley So in the final round on Saturday. "After the kind of a start I had this has been a good recovery," said Sasikiran. "In today`s game against Negi I had a slight advantage but could not find a way for a win. A win in the final round would be a nice way to round of the tournament and it will also help my rating," he added.Negi`s game against Sasikiran ended in a 48-move draw in the Anti-Meran. "It has not been a very good tournament for me. I am trying to use these last few games as training for my future events. I hope I will be able to take some lessons from this event," said Negi, who will represent India at the World Team Chess this month in China besides the World Cup in Russia. PTI