The Hindu, India
April 26 2004

Eljanov shoots into sole lead

Dubai, April 26. (PTI): Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran, yet again
slipped to joint second spot after drawing with GM Artashes Minasian
of Armenia, in the seventh round of the Dubai International Chess
Championship at Dubai Chess and Culture Club here.

GM Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine, shot into sole lead following a
hard-fought victory over GM Alexei Federov of Belarus.

Eljanov on six points is closely followed by top seeded Liviu-Dieter
Nisipeanu of Romania, Azerbaijani World Junior Champion Shakhriyaz
Mamedyarov, Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova, Alexander Goloshchapov of
Ukraine, Norwegian whiz-kid Magnus Carlsen, Minasian, Sasikiran and P
Harikrishna who all have 5.5 points each in their kitty.

With just two rounds remaining in this $41,000 tournament, another
pack of 8 players is in contention for top honours with 5 points
apiece.

The Indian IM norm aspirants suffered a setback in their quest as
Parimarjan Negi and Manthan Chokshi went down fighting against
Russian GM Alexey Kuzmin, and Armenian GM Karen Asrian, respectively.

Also losing was National Champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly who failed to
counter the bubbling energy of 13-years old Carlsen and IM D V Prasad
who fell back on a 50 per cent score after losing to Goran Dizdar of
Croatia.