Prince Sasikiran shocks King Anand

MUMBAI: In cricket, Virender Sehwag is overshadowing Sachin Tendukar. On the 64 squares, slowly but surely, Sasikiran is making a place for himself.
On Friday, Sasikiran surprised V. Anand with his irregular opening and took ample advantage of Anand’s weak move (17Na6) to win a tantalising tussle in the second round-robin game of the World Cup chess at the Ramoji Film City here on Friday.The victory puts 21-year-old Sasikiran (Elo 2670) in comfortable position as he has won both games in the six-player group.
With Chinese GM Xu Jun losing to Uzbek Ruslam Kasimdzhanov, Anand’s game against the latter on Friday becomes crucial. After having two games with black, the Indian will have an advantage of white pieces.
Sasikiran’s win may have been the biggest result of the day. But Surya Sekhar Ganguly’s taming of Russian Alexander Morozevich was no less significant. Koneru Humpy’s successive win, draws by Vassily Ivanchuk and Nigel Short were the highlights.
Sasikiran just pounced on Anand’s mistake. ‘‘I didn’t think much about whom I was playing. I just concentrated on my game,’’ said Sasikiran.
On the choice of opening, he said: ‘‘There was no point in going for a normal opening. For, Anand knows more about them than me.’’
Abnormal he did. And the result was sensational. Anand’s face turned red after the defeat but he was game enough to analyse the game with Sasikiran. It was his first encounter with an Indian in 10 years. Interestingly, Anand had a camp with the promising Indian players last month which also had Sasikiran. But no friendship was exchanged on the board as both played with full of pride.
On the other hand, Chinese women Zhu Chen and Wang Pin played a friendly 16-move draw. The half-point can help Chen get her breath back after Wednesday’s stunning loss to Indian WGM S. Meenaskhi. But then, draws are facts of life, also known as fair fixing.