By IANS,
Wijk Aan Zee (The Netherlands) : India’s Krishnan Sasikiran played a long 65-move draw against Andrei Volokitin of Ukraine in the sixth round, as the 71st edition of Corus chess approached the halfway mark here.
Sasikiran, who crushed Nigel Short in the previous round, now has 2.5 points, and is tied ninth.
Playing in Group B, Sasi is 1.5 points behind the leading trio David Navara, former FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimzhanov and Nigel Short, all of whom have four points each.
In group C, Grandmaster and world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta scored a big upset win over leader Tiger Hillarp Persson of Sweden in the sixth round. This was Gupta’s second straight win and third win in six rounds. Earlier he beat Manuel Bosboom in the fifth round.
Gupta outplayed Persson who played white in Grunfeld defence in a complicated queen-less middle game. He won in 44 moves.
Top seed Grandmaster Wesley So of the Philippines became the new leader outplaying GM Manuel Leon Hoyos of Mexico. Wesley now has tally to 4.5 points out of a possible six. He is followed by Persson with Gupta joint fourth with 3.5 points.
In another Group C match, Dronavalli Harika, the World junior girls’ champion played a draw with Ali Betalzadeh of Holland in a Berlin defence. Harika is tied sixth with three points.
Results of Group B (sixth round): Kasimdzhanov drew with Fabiano Caruana; Francisco Vallejo Pons lost to David Navara; Krishnan Sasikiran drew with Andrei Volokitin; Jan Werle drew with Zahar Efimenko; Dimitri Reinderman lost to Nigel Short; Hou Yifan beat Henrique Mecking; Erwin L’Ami lost to Alexander Motylev.
Results of Group C (sixth round): So beat Leon Hoyos; Hillarp Persson lost to Abhijeet Gupta; Manuel Bosboom beat Eduardo Iturrizaga; David Howell drew with Anish Giri; Ali Bitalzadeh drew with Dronavalli Harika; Roeland Pruijssers lost to Frank Holzke; Friso Nijboer drew with Oleg Romanishin.