Moscow, Feb. 21 (PTI): Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of GM Vasilios Kotronias of Cyprus in the fourth round of the Aeroflot international open chess tournament in progress here at the Rossija Hotel.

As draws ruled the roost on the top boards, overnight joint leaders – GMs Loek Van Wely of Holland and Russians Alexander Rustemov and Valerij Filippov – were joined by six other GMs, at the top of the table with 3.5 points each.

Sasikiran, who was joint fourth after the third round, will now have to work very hard to be among the frontrunners, having slipped to joint 37th spot with just 2.5 points in his kitty.

On another day of mixed results for the Indians in the A group, IM Lanka Ravi (2.5 point) kept his second GM norm hopes alive after holding the much higher rated GM Sarunas Sulskis of Lithuania. Scoring his first victory was GM Praveen Thipsay, beating GM Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan while Neelotpal Das tasted his first loss at the hands of Armenian Artashes Minasian.

In group B, GM-in-waiting Tejas Bakre (4) remained within striking distance of the sole leader Beniamin Galstian of Armenia after defeating Maxim Orlinko of Russia.