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Abhijeet Gupta clinches title

Special Correspondent

— Photo: Sandeep Saxena

TRIUMPHANT: Abhijeet Gupta, winner of the Parsvnath Open.

NEW DELHI: Grandmaster in-waiting Abhijeet Gupta became the toast of the sixth Parsvnath International Open chess tournament when he outplayed Uzbek Grandmaster Marat Dzhumaev in the crucial 10th and final round and emerged a worthy champion at the Modern School here on Sunday.

The 18-year-old National junior champion needed just 34 moves to aggregate nine points and take home the winner’s trophy and a cheque for Rs. 2.25 lakh. “For me this is the best result of the competition,” said a soft-spoken Abhijeet, referring to the flawless execution of his winning plan in the final round. Notably, for the first time in his career, Abhijeet completed a hat-trick of victories over Grandmasters.

Ganguly tamed Sriram Jha to finish runner-up at 8.5 points. Ganguly collected Rs. 1.60 lakh.

Indian Bank’s comeback man G. B. Prakash made his fourth GM norm on way to the third spot.

Debasis Das, V. A. V. Rajesh, Arjun Tiwari joined C. Praveen Kumar in the list of those who made International Master norms from the competition.

The results (10th round, Indians unless stated): Abhijeet Gupta (9) bt Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb, 8); Sriram Jha (7.5) lost to Surya Shekhar Ganguly (8.5); Abhijit Kunte (7.5) drew with Ziaur Rahman (Ban, 8); Roktim Bandyopadhyay (Ban, 7) lost to Igor Kurnosov (Rus, 8); Swayams Mishra (7) lost to Yuri Solodovnichenko (Ukr, 8); Nguyen Anh Dung (Vie, 7.5) drew with P. Karthikeyan (7.5); G. B. Prakash (8) bt M. R. Venkatesh (7); Prasenjit Dutta (7) lost to K. Ratnakaran (8)

Himanshu Sharma (7) lost to C. Praveen Kumar (8); Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Iri, 7.5) bt Shashikant Kutwal (6.5); Akshat Khamparia (6.5) lost to Saidali Iuldachev (Uzb, 7.5); Morteza Mahjoob (Iri, 7.5) bt Shyam Nikhil (6.5); Ram Prakash (6.5) lost to Shukhrat Safin (Uzb, 7.5); Pravin Thipsay (6.5) lost to Debashis Das (7.5); Kiran Manisha Mohanty (6.5) lost to S. Kidambi (7.5); R. R. Laxman (6.5) lost to Soumyaranjan Mishra (7.5); P. D. S. Girinath (6.5) lost to V. A. V. Rajesh (7.5); Jasur Madjidov (Uzb, 6.5) lost to Morteza Darban (Iri, 7.5); Bitan Banerjee (6.5) lost to M. S. Thejkumar (7.5); V. Saravanan (7.5) bt Antonio Viani D’cunha (6.5); Vinoth Kumar (6.5) lost to Zhanibek Amanov (Kaz, 7.5); Anant Dole (RSA, 6.5) lost to Arjun Tiwari (7.5).

Final standings: 1. Abhijeet (9), 2. Ganguly (8.5), 3-9 Prakash, Dzhumaev, Kurnosov, Solodovnichenko, Rahman, Ratnakaran and Praveen (8 each); 10-26 Kunte, Maghami, Iuldachev, Dung, Saravanan, Safin, Kidambi, Debashis, Tiwari, Mahjoob, Thejkumar, Amanov, Rajesh, Jha, Laxman, Darban and Karthikeyan (7.5 each).

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