Biel (Switzerland): Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran went down fighting to former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in the second round of the Biel international chess festival here.

Grandmaster Alexander Morozevich of Russia emerged sole leader in this category-18 six-player double round-robin event.

Morozevich scored another emphatic victory over Etienne Bacrot of France to maintain a clean slate with two points and is now followed by Ponomariov, who has 1.5 points in his kitty.

Sasikiran is on one point along with local star Yannick Pellitier while Englishman Luke McShane is yet open his account.

In the Master’s section, Asian junior champion P. Magesh Chandran outplayed Giuseppe Valenti of Italy to be amongst the leaders.

GM norm holder P. Konguvel held GM Alexander Riazentsev of Russia while lower-rated Michael Desboeufs of Switzerland held IM Parimarjan Negi to a draw. (PTI)