Sasikiran held by Motylev, Abhijeet at tied third

Indian players had a disappointing outing at the Corus chess championship with Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran and D Harika settling for draws while Abhijeet Gupta went down to slip to the third spot.

Sasikiran played out a draw with Alexander Motylev in the eighth round in the 'B' group taking his tally to three points, last night.

Ahead of the second rest day Sasikiran could not get much to hope for with his white pieces as Motylev kept himself in contention in a Queen pawn game and after the dust subsided the players just had a level position on board.

The peace was signed in 32 moves.

In the 'C' group, Grandmaster Abhijeet went down to Grandmaster Friso Nijboer of Holland.

The loss dented Abhijeet's (4.5 points)

chances considerably after Tiger Hillarp Person of Sweden managed to eke out a win against Mexican Manuel Leon Hoyos to emerge as sole leader with six points.

Persson has a one point lead over top seed Wesley So of the Philippines after he went down to Frank Holzke of Germany.

Wesley stayed in sole second place with five points.

Abhijeet shares the third spot with David Howell of England and local hopeful Manuel Bosboom who played out a draw with D Harika (four points).

Playing the black side of a Ruy Lopez, Abhijeet was surprised early in the opening after sacrificing a pawn and did not get a chance to recover in the remaining part of the game.