Sasikiran ousted from World Cup; Adhiban to face Nakamura

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran made his exit from the World Chess Cup, losing to Sergey Karjakin of Russia in the rapid tie-break games of the second round that concluded here.
The highest rated Indian in the fray got into some problems in late stages of the middle game and lost the first round as black. In the return game, Karjakin, world number nine, held himself together and got the draw that was enough for him to move to the third round.
Grandmaster B Adhiban, who eliminated Evgeny Alekseev of Russia and Alexander Fier of Brazil in the first two rounds, will meet highly regarded Hikaru Nakamura of United States in the third round of this USD 1.6 million prize money event that started with 128 players and is now down to last 32.

Adhiban is now the last remaining Indian in the fray. National champion G Akash and Grandmaster Parimajran Negi were eliminated in the first round itself.
The upset galore continued and former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine was shown the exit door by young Russian Grandmaster Daniil Dubov while local star Jon Ludvig Hammer accounted for David Navara of Czech Republic.
Russia had no troubles in cruising past compatriot Mikhail Kobalija, defending champion Peter Svidler of Russia won against Moldovan Grandmaster Alexander Bologan and American Gata Kamsky outclassed Russian Alexander Shimanov.

It turned out to be a bad first game for Sasikiran in the tie-breaker played with 25 minutes and ten seconds addition.

The Indian went for the Ruy Lopez and gave Karjakin a small advantage out of the opening. Karjakin returned the favour and just when it looked that Sasikiran's position was in control, he erred to land in a completely lost position.
The game lasted 42 moves.