Sasi finishes fifth

Sarajevo: Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran had to be content with a fifth-place finish after drawing his 10th and final round game with German GM Arkadij Naiditsch in the Bosna Grandmasters tournament.

Needing a little more than 50 per cent score from the tournament to break even, Sasikiran finished with 4.5 points out of a possible 10 and will lose some Elo rating points.

On the brighter side, this meet helped Sasikiran warm up for the 37th Olympiad in Turin, in which he is likely to play on the second board.

The final round of the high category event did not provide much excitement as top-seeded Romanian Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu played safe against Vladimir Malakhov of Russia and Magnus Carlsen did not succeed in breaking the defence of home contender Borki Predojevic.

Top-seeded Nisipeanu, Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Malakhov tied for top place with 5.5 points apiece, while Predojevic finished fourth (5).

Sasikiran was next on 4.5 points while Dortmund champion Naiditsch finished last in the six-player double round robin event.

Playing with white in the final round game, Sasikiran got little in the queen’s gambit accepted opening by transposition and Naiditsch achieved a fairly balanced position after successfully trading the queens on the 16th move.