Sasikiran, who has to win all his remaining six matches in the international open chess tournament to claim the GM title, has entered the blitz tournament on the rest day to garner as much match practice as possible.

The Indian upset GM Kveinys of Lithuania and held GM Sturua of Georgia to log six points from nine games.

Russian GM Shariazhdanov won the title on tie-break after logging seven points. Israeli GM Yehudo Grunfeld, who also logged seven points, had to settle for the second spot.

Sasikiran and GM Pravin Thipsay, who was eliminated in the earlier rounds, were the only Indians in fray in the blitz tournament.

The other Indians -- former national champions and double GM norm holders Abhijit Kunte and DV Prasad, IM V Saravanan, national junior champion S Kidambi and IWM Anupama Gokhale utilised the day forrest and preparation.

FINAL STANDING OF THE BLITZ EVENT.

1 GM Shariyadzanov (Rus) 7 points; 2. GM Y Grunfeld (Isr) 7; 3. IM Vulevje (Yug) 6.5; 4. IM Pikula 6.5; 5. GM Z Sturua 6.5; 6. Lalandenbcrqvi 6; 7. GM Kevnes 6; 8. IM Sasikrian 6.

Ganguly upsets

PUNE: Surya Shekhar Ganguly of Goodricke Chess Academy and former world under-10 champion P Harikrishna of Andhra Pradesh sprung a surprise on the concluding day of the Rs two lakh prize money all-India FIDE rating chess tournament here today, with an upset win over the already confirmed champion Neelotpal Das and TS Ravi respectively, reports Leeladhar Singh.

At the Maharashtra Sanskritik Mandal Hall here, Ganguly beat his city and academy mate Neelotpal on the top board, thus taking his point tally to nine to finish second with the help of progressive points of 53.

Harikrishna, who defeated TS Ravi, also aggregated nine points but had to settle for third position as he had progressive points of 52. Ganguly and Harikrishna won Rs35,000 and Rs 21,000, respectively, for their efforts.

Meanwhile, N Sanjay of Income-Tax, Mysore, who needed a win today to finish second behind Neelotpal, drew with GB Joshi on the third board to slip down to fourth place, having 8.5 points and a progressive points tally of 55. He takes the cash prize purse of Rs 15,000.

After Neelotpal (GCA) confirmed his title yesterday itself, today's fight was among N Sanjay, S Ganguly, IM Lanka Ravi, TS Ravi and Harikrishna for the second place. However, Ganguly, playing on the top board against winner Neelotpal did not have too much difficulty in the Kings India defence game. As Neelotpal blundered on the 16th move, Ganguly went a pawn up and had a material advantage in the middle game. Ganguly sacrificed his queen for rook and knight in the later part to force Neelotpal to resign on the 42nd move.

N Sanjay, requiring a full point for a possible second place, decided against taking too many risks today, as the 31-year-old Karnataka boy settled to share the pointsin 15 moves in the Caro Kann defence.

The `Mighty' Lanka Ravi played the French defence which transposed into reverse Kings India in the later part. Lanka Ravi, though being a rook down, got into a wild and complicated attack for a very long time, before playing perpetual checks with his queen to split the point with Sriram Jha of LIC in 45 moves.

IMPORTANT RESULTS (ROUND XI)

Neelotpal Das (GCA) 9 lost to S Ganguly (GCA) 9; P Harikrishna (AP) 9 bt TS Ravi (IOC) 8; GB Joshi (IAL) 8 drew with N Sanjay (IT) 8.5; Sriram Jha (LIC) 8 drew with IM Lanka Ravi (ONGC) 8; IM RB Ramesh (IOC) 8 bt Amardeep Bartakke (Mah) 7; S Satyapragyan (Ori) 7 lost to Sandeepan Chanda (GCA) 8; Ravi Bhave (Rlys) 7.5 drew with CS Gokhale (IAL) 7.5; Shankar Roy (E Rlys) 7 lost to RK Mishra (MP) 8; Vishal Sareen (LIC) 7.5 drew with Vedant Goswami (Raj) 7.5; SS Soman (Mah) 7 lost to (w/o) RS Gupta (Del) 8; V Kamble (Mah) 7.5 drew IWM S Vijayalakshmi (IAL) 7.5; Rahul Shetty (IAL) 8 bt Ravindra Dongre (Mah) 7; SK Rathod (MP) 7.5bt S Meenakshi (TN) 7.

FINAL POSITION

Neelotpal Das (60.5 progressive points); S Ganguly 9 (53 pp); P Harikrishna 9 (52 pp); N Sanjay 8.5 (55 pp); IM Lanka Ravi 8 (54 pp); TS Ravi 8 (53 pp); GB Joshi 8 (52 pp); Sandeepan Chanda 8 (51 pp); IM RB Ramesh 8 (50.5 pp); S Jha 8 (45.5).