Sasi draws with Caruana, moves to tied second

New Delhi: India`s Krishnan Sasikiran settled for a draw against tournament leader Fabiano Caruana of Italy as he jumped to tied second after the seventh round of the AAI Grandmasters Chess on Wednesday.

Sasikiran held the advantage for a good part of the game against Caruana but the world junior number one Italian hung on tenaciously to play out a draw after 92 moves and seven hours. The draw brought Sasikiran to four points at tied second along with Wesley So and Laznicka while Caruana, the only unbeaten player in the tournament, stayed at top with 5.5 points with three rounds to go. China`s women`s world champion Hou Yifan has two points. India`s Parimarjan Negi was at the bottom with 1.5 points in the six-competitor tournament after losing to Yifan on Wednesday. "I was worse in the opening but then had a chance. But in the end I suppose I made some mistake I don`t know. I thought I was winning for a while, but it was a see-saw," Sasikiran said later. It was another bad day for Negi who lost to Yifan in 62 moves. Negi continued to be out of form. The Indian national champion, who won his second round match against Yifan and then drew against Wesley So in the third has now lost four games in a row and five in seven rounds. For Yifan, it was her first win of the tournament. "I played badly with too many mistakes in the first four games, but after that the mistakes have become less. In today`s game I had a better opening, but somewhere in the middle I made a mistake but my opponent missed the chances of a draw," said Yifan.In the third match of the day, Wesley So of Philippines needed just 30 moves in a Semi-slav game against Viktor Lazincka of Czech Republic to score his second win in the quickest decisive result of the tournament. It was a revenge of sorts as Wesley So had lost to Laznicka in the second round. There are three more rounds to go in the 10-round Category-17 tournament. The tournament ends on Saturday. Results of Round Seven: K Sasikiran drew with F Caruana; W So beat V Laznicka; H Yifan beat P Negi. Points after seven rounds: 5.5 points: Caruana; 4.0: Sasikiran, Laznicka and Wesley So; 2.0: Yifan; 1.5: Negi. Draw for eighth round: F Caruana v H Yifan; Negi v W So; V Laznicka v K Sasikiran. PTI