Sasikiran disappoints

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran lost to Grandmaster Alexander Areshchenko of Ukraine in the 10th and final round to finish his campaign with just six points, while five players tied for the top spot in the masters' section of the Gibtele.com chess festival at Caleta hotel in Gibraltar.

Grandmasters' top seed Alexei Shirov of Spain, Zahar Efimenko of Ukraine, Emil Sutovsky of Israel, Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria and Levon Aronian of Armenia shared the top place with an identical score of 7.5 points in this star-studded open event that featured 121 players.

Sasikiran, who was seeded fifth, finished 17th in another pack of six players.

As many as five players -- GMs Vasilios Kotronias of Greece, Gabriel Sargissen of Armenia, Daniel Gormally of England, Hikaru Nakamura of United States and Areshchenko -- were joint sixth on 7 points.

It turned out to be another bad day for Sasikiran, who failed to find his rhythm in this tournament.

Playing black against Areshchenko, nothing worked right for Sasikiran, who played the black side of a Sicilian Nazdorf.

Employing the Fischer Sozin, Areshchenko had Sasikiran on the ropes after both players castled on the queen side.

Sasikiran was subjected to a direct attack soon after Areshchenko spotted a few weaknesses near his king and thereafter it was a smooth sailing for the Ukrainian, who first won an exchange and then knocked down a pawn to force resignation.

The game lasted 47 moves.

The final round, otherwise, had expected results. On the top board, Sutovsky signed peace with Shirov in no time but Efimenko had to work hard to get the same result against Kotronias, who played white.

Efimenko appeared to be caught in a difficult endgame but managed to put up a good show to steer the game to a level position where the draw was agreed to after 46 moves.

Kiril Georgiev had it easy against Israeli Sergey Erenburg, who failed to keep his nerves in a complicated game arising out of a Semi Slav.

After getting a passed pawn on the queen side Georgiev converted to a won endgame with quick exchanges and romped home in 52 moves.

Important results final round: Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 7.5) drew with Alexei Shirov (Esp, 7.5); Vasilios Kotronias (Gre, 7) drew with Zahar Efimenko (Ukr, 7.5); Kiril Georgiev (Bul, 7.5) beat Sergey Erenburg (Isr, 6.5); Gabriel Sargissen (Arm, 7) drew with Daniel Gormally (Eng, 7); Ian Rogers (Aus, 6) lost to Levon Aronian (Arm, 7.5); Kevin Spraggett (Can, 6.5) drew with Alexey Dreev (Rus, 6.5); Alexander Areshchenko (Ukr, 7) beat Krishnan Sasikiran (Ind, 6); Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 7) beat Nicholas Pert (Eng, 6); Peter Wells (Eng, 6.5) beat Jonathan Speelman (Eng, 6); Kateryna Lahno (Ukr, 5.5) lost to Boris Avrukh (Isr, 6.5); Pavel Tregubov (Rus, 6) drew with Iweta Radzeiwicz (Pol, 6); Evgeny Postny (Isr, 6) drew with Almira Skripchenko (Mda, 6); Hicham Hamdouchi (Mar, 6) drew with Mohamed Tissir (Mar, 6); Mark Hebden (Eng, 6) drew with Bragi Thorfinnsson (Isl, 6); Thomas Rendle (Eng, 6) drew with Chris Ward (Eng, 6); Arakhamia Grant Ketevan (Geo, 6) drew with Mohamed Al Sayed (Qat, 6); Juan Manuel Bellon Lopez (Esp, 5) lost to Colin Mcnab (Sco, 6.5).