Sasikiran Playing At 2820

By Arvind Aaron

So what is 2820? Isn't Chennai-born Krishnan Sasikiran only listed with 2684 on the July 2008 rating list by FIDE? Yes he is. In his first five rounds, the ONGC player had scored three wins and two draws. He has done what a 2820 rated player need to achieve in his first five games. That is called 'rating performance'. If he maintains this playing level over all his games, he will be adding Elo for his October 2008 rating list.

The event is happening at Warsaw, the capital of Poland and is named after the Polish player Miguel Najdorf who went to Latin America to play in the Chess Olympiad at Argentina in 1939 and could not return due to the start of the second war. He later lived in Buenos Aires for the remainder of his life. He had helped Poland win a silver medal in that Olympiad, the first held outside of Europe.

With an average rating of 2608, this event qualifies for category 15 in strength and runs from August 2-10. Sasikiran is doing well and should win this event. He has a half point lead after five rounds with 4/5. Local boy Bartosz Socko is in second place with 3.5 points.

Sasikiran bt Michal Olszewski (Pol), Eduardas Rozentalis (Ltu), drew with Socko (Pol), bt Emmanuel Berg (Swe), drew with Csaba Balogh (Hun).

Home                                                         Published on 08^th August, 2008