By IANS
Moscow : Krishnan Sasikiran was the lone Indian to advance to the second round of the World Cup, as his three team mates were eliminated in first round tie-breakers Monday.
Sasikiran was taken all the way to the Blitz segment. After drawing their first two classical games, Sasikiran and Sergei Zhigalko of Belarus drew their Rapid games, too, in the tie-breaker. That took the clash into Blitz, where Sasikiran won the first with white and drew with black to move into the next round.
Sasikiran will meet Vadim Zvaginsev of Russia, who beat Abhijit Kunte in the tie-breaker. They drew their classical games and then the Russian won the second game in Rapid tie-breaker.
Pentala Harikrishna was upset by China’s Zhao Jun. Hari, rated more than 110 elo points higher than Zhao, was knocked out in the tie-breaker. Zhao won the second game of the rapid tie-breaker. Zhao will now meet Livier Dieter Nisipeanu, a former World championship runner-up.
G.N. Gopal, who made former FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov sweat, finally lost in the Blitz tie-breaker. The two players drew their classical encounters and then again shared the point in Rapid games. In Blitz, Kasimdzhanov finally beat Gopal in both games and moved ahead.
Kasimdzhanov will clash with Kiril Georgiev in the second round, which has 64 players left.
Among notable upsets in first round, former world champion, Alexander Khalifman, was eliminated by his countryman Vladimir Belov and British Grandmaster Nigel Short was sent back by 19-year-old German GM David Baramidze.
Hosain Enamul (2514) of Bangladesh eliminated Pavel Eljanov (2691) of Ukraine in another upset.
On Monday, of the 20 matches that went into tie-breakers, 13 were decided in Rapid chess. The players advancing include former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov, Russian champion Evgeny Alekseev, and former world runner-up Vladimir Akopian.
Five matches out of the remaining seven were decided in Blitz. This was where Kasimdzhanov finally broke the stubborn resistance of the young Indian Gopal. And in another India’s Sasikiran beat Zhigalko.
Two matches proceeded to the most cruel form of chess competition — the sudden death game. Michael Roiz and Konstantin Sakaev survived, while Varuzhan Akobian and Nikita Vitiugov were sent home.