Overnight joint-leader Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran slipped to joint 10th spot after a shocking defeat at the hands of GM Gabriel Sargissen of Armenia in the sixth round of the master's section in the Gibtele.Com chess festival in Gibraltar.
With four rounds still to come in the event, Sargissen emerged the sole leader with five points. He is followed by top seed Alexei Shirov of Spain, Hikaru Nakamura of the United States, Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria, Levon Aronian of Armenia, Alexey dreev of Russia, Zahar Efimenko of Ukraine, Vasilios Kotronias of Greece and the Israeli duo of Emil Sutovsky and Boris Avrukh, who all have 4.5 points apiece.
Sasikiran is next in line with four points and giving him company among others are Ian Rogers of Australia, Alexander Areshcheko of Ukraine and Kevin Spraggett of Canada.
The highest-rated Indian after Viswanathan Anand will meet Sweidish GM Pia Cramling in the next round and a victory there can still put Sasikiran back in the race for the title.
Sasikiran was a little over-ambitious in the middle game against Sargissen. Playing the Neo-Grunfeld opening as black, Sasikiran had a balanced position in the middle game and he tried to create imbalance with quite original planning and it was on the 28th move that the game took a decisive turn as Sargissen went ahead with complications, accepting a temporary pawn sacrifice by his opponent.
Sasikiran had optical advantage for some time during the game when he found fine attacking manoeuvres to leave Sargissen in trouble.
However, as the position simplified, Sargissen emerged on top as Sasikiran was subjected to a typical case of divided forces, with little co-ordination. Sasikiran still gave a tough fight but the dye was already cast. The game lasted 64 moves.
Interestingly, apart from Sargissen, Greek Vasilios Kotronias was the only winner on the top 10 boards while all the remaining games ended in draws.
Kotronias defeated Bragi Thorfinnsson of Iceland in a fine positional game arising out of a Sicilian defence.
Kotronias got a vice-like grip right after the opening and consistent play thereafter netted him the full point after 37 moves.
It was a tame affair on the top board as former World junior champion Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria played it safe against Latvian-born-Spaniard Alexei Shirov. Playing just too safe against the Slav, Georgiev employed a tested variation and had no troubles in maintaining the balance in this 30-move encounter.
United States' champion Hikaru Nakamura drew with Levon Aronian of Armenia in an interesting game. Playing white, Nakamura accepted the Marshall gambit and then showed resourceful play in the middle game to come out a little better. However, Aronian was quite up to the task in defence and after tactical manoeuvring, ensured the draw.
In other important games of the day, Alexei Dreev was held to a draw by Avrukh while Emil Sutovsky had to share the point with Efimenko.
Important results round 6:
Kiril Georgiev (Bul, 4.5) drew with Alexei Shirov (Esp, 4.5); Alexey Dreev (Rus, 4.5) drew with Boris Avrukh (Isr, 4.5); Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 4.5) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 4.5); Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 4.5) drew with Zahar Efimenko (Ukr, 4.5); Gabriel Sargissen (Arm, 5) beat Krishnan Sasikiran (Ind, 4); Pia Cramling (Swe, 4) drew with Ian Rogers (Aus, 4); Kevin Spraggett (Can, 4) drew with Colin Mcnab (Sco, 4); Vasilios Kotronias (Gre, 4.5) beat Bragi Thorfinnssson (Isl, 3.5); Evgeny Postny (Isr, 4) drew with Hamad Al-Tamimi (Qat, 4); A. R. Saleh Jasim (Uae, 4) drew with Jonathan Speelman (Eng, 4); Kateryna Lahno (Ukr, 4) drew with Peter Wells (Eng, 4); Stefan Kristjansson (Isl, 3.5) drew with Mohamed Al Sayed (Qat, 4); Joanna Dworakowska (Pol, 3) lost to Alexander Areshchenko (Ukr, 4); Juan Manuel Bellon Lopez (Esp, 3) lost to Hicham Hamdouchi (Mar, 4); Sergey Erenburg (Isr, 3.5) drew with Richard Pert (Eng, 3.5); Mark Hebden (Eng, 3) lost to Sergio Estremera (Esp, 4); Gabriel Del Rio (Esp, 4) beat Bjorn Thorfinnsson (Isl, 3).