Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran finished the 18th North Sea Cup International Chess tournament with a big bang, outsmarting local stalwart Curt Hansen in the final round and propelling himself to a shared first place in Esbjerg, Denmark.
Top seed GM Alexey Dreev of Russia and British sensation Luke McShane tied for the top spot along with Sasikiran, bagging an identical 6.5 points out of a possible 9 in this Category 15 event as per FIDE charts.
The supremacy of these three in the event was proved beyond any doubt as the nearest challenger Hansen could amass just 4.5 points for a fourth place finish.
Hastings champion Peter Heine of Denmark, Cuban Lenier Dominiguez and highly regarded Michael Krasenkow of Poland had to be content with joint fifth place after their mediocre performance netted them four points apiece.
Bruzon Lazaro of Cuba and Lars Schandorff of Denmark tied for 8th place with 3.5 points while former World Juniors Girls champion Koneru Humpy finished at the bottom with two points, having played the maximum number of seven decisive games, losing six and winning one.
The last round had little excitement other than Sasikiran's game, which was the only deciding match of the day.
The Chennai-based player put up a brave front to put it across Hansen after two overnight leaders Dreev and McShane played out a quick 12-move draw amongst themselves to secure the first place.
Riding a little on luck and mostly on his power play, Sasikiran showed steely nerves in the middle game arising out of the Casablanca variation of the Nimzo Indian defence with white pieces.
The opening gave Sasikiran a double Bishop advantage but Hansen maintained the balance by keeping his position intact on both wings.
Desperate for a win after his defeat in the previous round saw him slip to third place, Sasikiran went for a dynamic set-up with chances for both sides but blundered on the 28th move.
However, Hansen did not get any clue in extreme complexities and missed out on a simple tactic that would have at least salvaged the day and instead lost material.
Once on top, Sasikiran commanded the proceedings in copybook fashion and romped home in 40 moves for his first title triumph in a tournament of this stature.
The second highest rated Indian after Vishwanathan Anand is expected to gain more than 10 ELO rating points from this tournament, which will take him nearer to the magical figure of 2700.
Koneru Humpy ended her campaign with a draw against Nielsen who played black. Humpy employed the classical set-up with intentions of launching a minority attack on the queen side in a Queen's Gambit Declined variation and never let the position slip out of hands.
Nielsen tried to make some headway on the king side but subsequent exchanges subsided the tension. The game lasted 27 moves.
Krasenkow was looking for a victory but his efforts went in vain as Schandorff played solidly to force a draw in 48 moves while Lazaro and Dominiguez played just eight moves before splitting the point.
