Indian Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran thrashed Shakriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan in the seventh round to emerge the sole leader in the Mtel Masters chess in Sofia.
Mamedyrarov, who shared the leader board jointly with Sasikiran after the sixth round, opened with his favourite move c4 to which Sasi replied with e5 and the game continued on English opening.
Playing with white pieces, Mamedyarov dominated the board in the beginning, but Sasikiran managed to get the advantage after sacrificing a pawn.
The Azerbaijan Grandmaster committed a blunder in the 41st move when he played d7. Sasikiran was quick to capitalize on his opponent's mistake by playing the next move Rg8, which ultimately sealed Mamedyarov'fs fate.
Speaking immediately after clinching the top spot, a smiling Sasikiran said, ''In the opening I did not play well. But somehow I managed to defend myself.
"I was under terrible time trouble and tried to repeat the moves in order to get a draw but Mamedyarov has some other plans in his mind.
''He most probably overlooked my defences and committed a blunder on the 41st move by playing d7. I immediately played Rg8 after which Mamedyarov resigned."
With this victory, Sasikiran has 4.5 points in his kitty and leads his nearest three opponents by a clear one point.
Meanwhile, both the other games of the day ended in no results, as Michael Adams of England drew his game with crowd favourite Vaselin Topalov, and the game between Gata Kamsky and Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu ended in a draw.
Standing after Round 7: 1. Krishnan Sasikiran (4.5 points); 2-4. Michael Adams, Veselin Topalov and S Mamedyarov (3.5 points); 5-6. Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu and Gata Kamsky (3 points).
Round 8 Pairing: 1. Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu vs Michael Adams 2. Veselin Topalov vs S Mamedyarov 3. Krishnan Sasikiranb vs Gata Kamsky
More from rediff