The Hindu : Sport : Lalith wins Leiden title; Arun makes history in Scotland

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Lalith wins Leiden title; Arun makes history in Scotland

— File Photos

CHAMPIONS: M.R. Lalith Babu, who won the Leiden chess tournament

NEW DELHI: M.R. Lalith Babu claimed the biggest title of his budding career when he humbled third-seeded Georgian Grandmaster Tornike Sanikidze in the final round of the Leiden chess tournament in the Dutch town of Lieden on Sunday.

Lalith won with black pieces on the second board after the top-board clash between the other two overnight leaders, Dutchman Erik van den Doel and Ukrainian Stanislav Savchenko, ended in a draw.

Technically, Lalith performed at a rating level of 2629 that was good enough for claiming a Grandmaster norm. An official confirmation of Lalith’s GM-norm is awaited.

Shreyansh Daklia achieved his maiden International Master norm and S. Harini made her first Woman International Master norm.

Arun Prasad triumphs

GM S. Arun Prasad became the first Indian to claim the title in the 116-year history of the Scottish chess championship, in Edinburgh on Sunday.

In the ninth and final round, Arun (7.5 points) defeated P. Magesh Chandran (6.5) in 64 moves.

Mark Hebden (7), the other overnight leader apart from the two Indians, drew on the second board with Gudmundur Kjartansson early. Magesh finished fourth.

GM Parimarjan Negi and IM S.P. Sethuraman maintained their winning sequence after three rounds of the Politiken Cup at Copenhagen on Sunday.

On a double-round day, Parimarjan defeated Denmark’s Nicholas Nelson and Peter Skovgaard, while Sethuraman got the better of Holland’s Jouke and Denmark’s Jacob Kaaber.

Sasikiran loses

Defending champion K. Sasikiran lost to Poland’s Wojtaszek Radoslaw in 40 moves in the second round of the Najdorf memorial tournament in Warsaw on Sunday.

IMs Deep Sengupta and P. Konguvel (7.5 each) were part of a nine-way tie for the Rethymno International chess title in the Greek city of Rethymno on Sunday. Eventually, when the tie was broken after the ninth and final round, Deep settled for the fifth spot and Konguvel was placed eighth.

S. Arun Prasad, winner of the Scottish chess championship.

Ukraine’s Adam Tukhaev topped the tie.

WGM Eesha Karavade and young Abhishek Kelkar were among the leaders after winning their first two rounds of the Andorra International chess tournament in Andorra.

Rethymno International (Indians standing): 5. Deep Sengupta (7), 8. P. Konguvel (7), 14. Tejas Bakre (6.5), 17. M.R. Venkatesh (6.5), 27. Saptarshi Roy (6), 30. Aswin Jayaram (6), 42. Arghyadip Das (5.5), 44. R. Arun Karthik (5.5), 46. Karma Pandya (5.5), 47. Sahaj Grover (5.5) and 48. Prasanna Rao (5.5).

The results (involving Indians):

Leiden tournament (ninth round): Tornike Sanikidze (Geo, 6) lost to M. R. Lalith Babu (7.5); Shreyansh Daklia (6.5) drew with John van der Wiel (Ned, 6.5); B. Adhiban (6.5) bt Daniel Naroditsky (USA, 5.5); Shyam Sundar (5.5) lost to Yuri Vovk (Ukr, 6.5); V.A.V. Rajesh (5.5) lost to P. Karthikeyan (6.5); Igor Coene (Ned, 6) bt Soumya Swaminathan (5); Nicky Law (6) lost to Padmini Rout (6); Kiran Manisha Mohanty (5) drew with Julian van Overdam (Ned, 5); Henk van Putten (Ned, 4.5) drew with S. Harini (5); R. Meenu (4.5) drew with P. Uthra (4.5).

Indians standings: 1. Lalith, 5. Adhiban, 9. Shreyansh, 10. Karthikeyan, 15. Padmini, 20. Shyam, 21. Rajesh, 27. Harini, 32. Soumya, 33. Kiran, 47. Uthra and 57. Meenu.

Balaguer International (seventh round): Levan Aroshidze (Geo, 5.5) bt Aditya Udeshi (4.5); G.N. Gopal (5) bt Bernd Kohlweyer (Ger, 4); Jordi Fluvia (Esp, 5) bt Devangi Patankar (4); Debashis Das (4.5) drew with Matthias Roeder (Ger, 4.5); Rakesh Kulkarni (4) lost to Vesterbaek Pedersen (Den, 5); K. Priyadharshan (4.5) bt Shalmali Gagare (3.5); Heikki Westerinen (Fin, 4.5) bt Fenil Shah (3.5); Rucha Pujari (3.5) lost to Alberto Chueca (Esp, 4.5); Girish Koushik (3.5) lost to Zurab Javakhadze (Geo, 4); Lluis Quintas (Esp, 3) lost to J. Saranya (4); R. Bharathi (4) bt Shristi Shetty (3); Pallabi Roy (3.5) bt Ramon Morales (Esp, 2.5).

Andorra International (second round): Sabino Burnello (Ita, 2) bt Shiven Khosla (1); Xavier Vila Gazquez (Esp, 2) bt Aniruddha Deshpande (1); Joerg Wegerie (Ger, 2) bt P. Priya (1); Mark Berkovich (Isr, 1) lost to Abhishek Kelkar (2); Asaf Givon (Isr, 1) lost to Eesha Karavade (2); Robin van Kampen (Ned, 2) bt Sai Meera (1); Anupritya Patil (0.5) drew with Miguel Bas Mas (Esp, 0.5).

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