Krishnan Sasikiran was born on 7th January in the year 1981. This eminent Indian chess player, among other Indians, is second only to Vishwanathan Anand in FIDE rating. Sometimes he is called as "Sasi". Originally he is from Chennai in Tamil Nadu in south-eastern India. At the age of 9, Sasikiran started playing chess and earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 19. His father Krishnan who himself is a strong player is his coach and his first coach was IM Sundararajan Kidambi.

In the year 2000, he became an International Chess Grandmaster at the Commonwealth Championship. He won the esteemed Hastings International Chess tournament in the year 2001. He won both the 4th Asian Individual Championship as well as the Politiken Cup in Copenhagen in the year 2003. In the 2005 Sigeman Tournament held at Copenhagen/Malmφ Denmark, Sasikiran tied with Jan Timman for first place.

Sasikiran was ranked number 21 in the world with an Elo rating of 2700 FIDE rating list as on the January 2007. After reaching the ELO rating of 2700, he became only the second chess player from India. In Asian Games of the year 2006, he won Gold medal in team event. A cheque of Rs 20 Lacs was presented by the Tamilnadu Government as an appreciation towards his success. He has also won the Hastings International Chess Congress, England, in 2001 and 2002. He has also won the Pentamedia Category XI GM tournament, Chennai in 2000. By acquiring a host of honored tournaments, Sasikiran has made rapid paces. His current FIDE rating is 2676. 2700 was the highest rating throughout his chess career. Some of the notable games he has played are: Sasikiran vs Krasenkow in the year 2004 won by 1-0, Nakamura vs Sasikiran in the year 2005 won by 0-1, Kamsky vs Sasikiran in the year 2007 won by 0-1, Mamedyarov vs Sasikiran in the year 2007 and won by 0-1, Navara vs Sasikiran in the year 2007 won by 0-1, Sasikiran vs Harikrishna in the year 2002 won by 1-0, Sasikiran vs Anand in the year 2002 and won by 1-0.

At the 1998 British Open in Torquay, his first GM norm came. At the tournament he finished at 6th. Open 1998 were to follow with the wins at Andorra Open and Balaguer Open (Spain) and a third place in Benasque. He won his first Indian National "A" Championship in the very next year and the Asian Junior Championship in the very same year. For Sasikiran the year 2000 was simply wonderful. At the Asian Championship held in Udaipur, he earned his 2nd GM norm and 3rd GM norm at the Goodricke International Open held in Calcutta. As he finished 2nd, he wasn`t able to hold back the Indian National title but he took the Commonwealth Championship few months earlier. In his birth-town Chennai finally, he won the 11th category Pentamedia tournament.

With experienced players, Sasikiran often takes part in practice games. He explains here how are the benefits: "It`s one thing that I love to do, and have been doing it regularly. It was basically the idea of my father and trainer, Mr Krishnan, which caught upon me. I used to train with Chennai players A L Kasi, A Sankar, S Kidambi and M J Ismail. Quite recently I`ve been doing it with GM Dibyendu Barua and I found it extremely useful. My vision for tactics improved after training with Barua." He has accompanied various training camps coordinated for Indian Grandmasters by Vishy Anand. The experience with which he was delighted reflects in his words, "The last time when Anand was here, I had an opportunity to work with him on a one-to-one basis. We worked on some specific positions for a few days, and analyzed them. That was when I really saw him calculate positions."

In the year 2006, he won La Roche sur yon. Afterward he led India at the Asian Games, held in Doha to the team gold in the first ever chess competition. A fantastic 8.0/9 was scored by him on the first board and reached the heights of 2700 ELO points. As he said, "This is a dream come true, really. Something I have been dreaming about for the last four years. And I was expecting to make it in this list." he said, and added "Doha was an unforgettable experience in many ways". Sasikiran`s first 20th category tournament will be the Mtel Masters and definitely a chance to shine. He drew Topalov once so far but lost one game to Michael Adams and scored +1 =2 -2 against Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. Kamsky or Mamedyarov were not played by him before. Winning the 15th category Nord Sea Cup and Politiken Cup in the year 2003 became a successful excursion to Denmark by in its true sense. At the 13th category Sigeman tournament later on he also took part.