Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran turned the tables on Scotland's International Master John Shaw to move into joint fifth spot after the fourth round of the Master's section of the Gibtele.com chess festival in Gibraltar.
With this win, Sasikiran has taken his points tally to three from the possible four and shares the spot with top seed and hot favourite Alexei Shirov of Spain, and third seed Emil Sutovsky of Israel and 13 others.
Four players, Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria, Boris Avrukh of Israel and Armenian duo of Gabriel Sargissen and former World junior champion Levon Aronian continued to share the lead in this over 15000 Pounds Sterling prize money tournament after none-to-eventful draws in the fourth round games.
Sasikiran was just lucky against Shaw who has been playing in terrific form here.
Having drawn against Shirov in the first round itself, Shaw confidently took on Sasikiran's off-beat Sicilian defence and a routine deployment of forces ensured a dangerous attack for him.
Sasikiran, however, hung in there finding defensive moves in a difficult position, mainly caused by his uncomfortable kingside.
As Shaw unleashed his final attack he missed a simple rook manoeuvre that proved his piece sacrifice wrong. The Indian won in 29 moves.
For Shirov it has been a rosy ride with black pieces so far in the event.
Up against Stefan Kristjansson of Iceland, Shirov, also known as the author of 'Fire on board', played the Caro Kann and had his opponent in sorts of troubles soon after the opening.
Precise calculation in a complicated position enabled Shirov to maintain his strong hold and when the dust subsided, Kristjansson found himself a piece down and resigned after 34 moves.
Meanwhile, draws ruled the roost on the top four boards. The duel between compatriots Sargissen and Aronian turned out to be a damp squib as the players signed peace in just 11 moves while the other contest between overnight joint leaders Georgiev and Avrukh was also a similar story ending in a draw in 8 moves.
Alexey Dreev did try to get some complications in his game against Ukrainian Zahar Efimenko but the latter was quite up to the task in his Queen's Indian defence.
After 21 moves Dreev concluded the position to be equal and proposed the draw that was accepted immediately.
In other important games of the day English Mark Hebden survived quite a few tricks by young GM Hikaru Nakamura of United States before finding the draw in a pawn down endgame while Sutovsky had it easy against veteran Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan of Georgia.
Important results round 4: Gabriel Sargissen (Arm, 3.5) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 3.5); Kiril Gergiev (Bul, 3.5) drew with Boris Avrukh (Isr, 3.5); Alexey Dreev (Rus, 3) drew with Zahar Efimenko (Ukr, 3); Mark Hebden (Eng, 3) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 3); Stefan Kristjiansson (Isl, 2) lost to Alexei Shirov (Esp, 3); Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 3) beat Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan (Geo, 2); John Shaw (Sco, 2) lost to Krishnan Sasikiran (Ind, 3); Pavel Tregubov (Rus, 2.5) drew with Colin Mcnab (Sco, 2.5); Kevin Spraggett (Can, 2.5) drew with Juan Manuel Bellon Lopez (Esp, 2.5); Vasilios Kotronis (Gre, 3) beat Tissir Mohamed (Mar, 2); Watu Kobese (Rsa, 2.5) drew with Alexander Areshchenko (Ukr, 2.5); Evgeny Postny (Rus, 3) beat Michael Hennigan (Eng, 2); Joanna Dworakowska (Pol, 2) lost to Hicham Hamdouchi (Mar, 3); Sergey Erenburg (Isr, 3) beat Thomas Rendle (Eng, 2); Ali Mortazavi (Eng, 2.5) drew with Jonathan Spee lman (Eng, 2.5).
