Sasikiran loses

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran suffered a defeat at the hands of Rulan Ponomariov of Ukraine in the first game of the pre-quarter finals at the Chess World Cup here.

Sasikiran, who had drawn all his classical games thus far in the event, found a tough customer in Ponomariov, who played energetically to go one up in the two-games mini-match.

The lone Indian in the fray now faces an ouster threat as he needs to win the return game now to take the game to tiebreaker under which games of faster time control will be played.