Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran was brilliance personified as he put it across former World champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in the seventh round of the Grandmaster section in the 37th Biel International chess festival in Switzerland on Tuesday.
Top seed and defending champion Alexander Morozevich of Russia kept pace with Sasikiran after defeating GM Etienne Bacrot of France albeit with a little help from his opponent.
As things stand now, both Morozevich and Sasikiran have an identical score of 5 points from 7 seven games and are followed by Ponomariov, who is 1.5 points behind.
In fourth spot is local hope Yannick Pelletier with three points. He followed by Bacrot, on 2.5, and English GM Luke McShane, on 2.
Just three rounds remain in this category-18 event on the FIDE charts, being played on a double round robin basis between six players.
Sasikiran's biggest scalp till date is none other than Viswanathan Anand, who found him hard to handle during the last World Cup in Hyderabad, and now, with the smashing victory against Ponomariov, the second highest rated Indian added another big gun to his casualty list.
The game was nothing short of a spectacle as Sasikiran crashed through Ponomariov's defences in style with white pieces.
Ponomariov opted for the Semi Slav and showed that he was ready for a full-blooded battle by inviting the ultra sharp Botvinnik variation, known for high tactical games.
Sasikiran went for a popular deviation in the opening and surprised Ponomariov with a knight sacrifice quite early to rip open black's king side. Ponomariov was taken aback by the courage and decided to return the favour just a few moves later but by then the die was already cast.
"It was a spontaneous decision to sacrifice the knight on f7, a move more in tune with my mood to fight," said Sasikiran after the game, looking happy and content.
He added, "But his return of piece a couple of moves later gave the advantage to me certainly. Maybe, it was my exchange of queens that caught him by surprise."
As the endgame arrived almost abruptly from the middle game, Ponomariov's pieces were tied down and as soon as Sasikiran started his pawn march to glory, the Ukrainian called it a day.
The game lasted 33 moves.
"I am delighted to equalise the mini match score with him, as well catch up with Morozevich in the lead," Sasikiran said about the victory.
Morozevich out-calculated Bacrot from a level position arising out of the Ruy Lopez where the former played black.
Getting a nearly equal Queen and minor piece endgame, Bacrot misplayed and sacrificed his Bishop at the wrong juncture while looking for perpetual checks.
Morozevich walked his king to safety after the first time control and forced resignation in 45 moves.
In the Masters section, R R Vasudevan came close to his maiden IM norm by holding GM Ciric Draglojub of Croatia to a creditable draw. GM Christian Bauer (6 pts) kept his half a point lead after he split points with Andrei Shariyazdanov of Russia.
Amongst the other Indians in the fray, Asian junior champion P Magesh Chandran moved to 4.5 after scoring over Buss Ralph of Switzerland. Former national champion P Konguvel continued to struggle and went down to Avni Ermeni of Kosovo while national sub-junior champion Parimarjan Negi defeated Ditzler Jurg of Switzerland.
Results - Grandmaster section:
Etienne Bacrot (2.5, Fra) lost to Alexander Morozevich (5, Rus); Krishnan Sasikiran (5, Ind) beat Ruslan Ponomariov (3.5, Ukr); Yannick Pelletier (3, Sui) drew with Luke McShane (2, Eng).
Important results round 7 (Indians unless specified):
Christina Bauer (6, Fra) drew with Andrei Shariyazdanov (5.5, Rus); Evgeny Alekseev (5, Rus) drew with Boris Avrukh (5.5, Isr); Mikhail Kobalia (5.5, Rus) beat Vladimir Kosyrev (4.5, Rus); Alexander Raetsky (4.5, Rus) lost to Pavel Eljanov (5.5, Ukr); Alexander Rustemov (5.5, Rus) beat Michail Brodsky (4.5, Ukr); Alexander Riazantsev (5, Rus) drew with Edward Porper (5); Zahar efimenko (5.5, Ukr) beat Kritz Leonid (4.5, Ger); Bra Thorfinnsson (4, Isl) lost to Mikhail Ulibin (5, Rus); Ognjen Civitan (5, Cro) beat Till Wippermann (4, Ger); Andrei Lukin (4, Rus) lost to Jenni Florian (5, Sui); Nukhim Rashkovsky (4.5, Rus) drew with Josip Rukavina (4.5); Ralph Buss (3.5, Sui) lost to P Magesh Chandran (4.5); Avni Ermani (4, Kos) beat P Konguvel (3); Ciric Dragoljub (3.5, Cro); Jurg Ditzler (3, Sui) lost to Parimarjan Negi (4).