Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran had to sweat before settling for a draw with GM Luke McShane of England in the 10th and final round of the Grandmaster's section in the 37th Biel International Chess festival in Switzerland.
Even as the final standing for the top positions were decided after the ninth round itself, the day did not prove uneventful as both Sasikiran and tournament winner GM Alexander Morozevich of Russia decided to fight it out till there was nothing left in the position.
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Sasikiran finishes second at Biel
However, the final round of the GM's section failed to provide a single decisive game.
Morozevich won the event with a better than expected score of 7.5 points and the World number four is going to add to his present Elo rating of 2743. Sasikiran too will be gaining some important points from this event having put in one of the best performances of his career.
This was the first time that Sasikiran played in a category -18 event and the Indian is likely to get more noticed for future invitations in stronger events.
In the last round, McShane tried his best to add to his rather sorry point position, a tally of three points thanks to a bad start, stretching Sasikiran too long.
Playing the black side of Tchigorin variation, Sasikiran had no problems in securing the balance in the middle game but McShane had the initiative for a long time. Slow manoeuvring ensued from both sides and temporarily McShane was even able to penetrate the eight rank with his rook that looked ominous.
However, Sasikiran thwarted white's attack and countered well on the queenside to keep the balance. The draw was agreed to on the 87th move and quite interestingly all the heavy pieces and a minor piece were still on board.
"Overall it is a satisfactory result and gives me a lot of confidence, before proceeding to Mainz and Vlissingen, from here," said an exhausted Sasikiran after the near seven-hour game.
Morozevich could not match his last year's winning tally of 8 points out of a possible 10 as Ponomariov denied him the victory in their last encounter. It was another Ruy Lopez of the day where Morozevich faced the open variation and went for the most attacking system.
As the variation demanded, Ponomariov sacrificed a piece early in the middle game and got passed pawns in the centre. It was a flurry of exchanges leading to a level rook and pawns endgame that followed and the game was drawn in 41 moves.
Frenchman Etienne Bacrot drew with local hope Yannick Pelletier to end his campaign in this year's event. Last time Bacrot had finished second behind Morozevich.
In the Master's section, being organised simultaneously, Asian Junior champion P Magesh Chandran kept his second GM norm hopes alive by holding highly rated GM Mikhail Kobalia to
a draw. Magesh took his tally to 7 points and now needs a victory against Russia International Master Alexander Raetsky in the final round game.
Draws were the order of the day in this round and as a result overnight leaders Russians Andrei Shariyazdanov and Alexander Rustemov, French Christian Bauer and Israel's Boris Avrukh maintained joint lead on 7.5 points.
