Tromso (Norway), Aug 14:
Former National champions B Adhiban and Krishnan Sasikiran raised their performance when it mattered and clinched their respective tie-break games to enter the second round of the chess World Cup here.
Pitted against a much higher-rated rival, Adhiban displayed top form to beat Evgeny Alekseev of Russia 5-3, winning in the blitz tiebreaker while Sasikiran prevailed over Constantin Lupulescu of Romania 2.5-1.5 cruising past in the second rapid game to reach the round of 64.
It turned out to be a bad day in office for other Indian contender Parimarjan Negi as he let go of his lead once again before going down to Yuri Kryvoruchko of Ukraine in the mini-match.
Parimarjan lost 2-4 but before that he won the first rapid tiebreaker as black. He blew it away with white pieces in the return game.
Adhiban’s victory turned out to be the second biggest upset in the World cup so far after Wei Yi of China had beaten Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia.. (PTI)
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