This is the first ever category-16 tournament in India. It finished yesterday; Nisipeanu taking the title after beating Kasimdzhanov in the tiebreaks. Chessbase has a report on it
here. When I first read about this tournament, I was literally drooling. So many well known GMs playing against our Indian talents....I was hoping Sasikiran would take, at least, a shared first with Sutovsky (my favorite). Alas! Sasi seems to have run out of steam, after his brilliant performance in
Biel 2004 & in
Vlissingen Open. He finished with a below-average score of 4.0 out of 9 games. Is it because of fatigue? Or is it because of the pressure of playing in the home grounds as one of the favorites? (BTW, he is the second highest rated player in the Indian list; Anand is in the first position, of course.) I read he lost 10 points in this tournament. He needs to get back in to form, if he ever wants to cross that 2700 mark!
# posted by
Kannan Ramanathan @
12:41 AM
