The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Areshchenko clinches title

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Areshchenko clinches title

Special Correspondent

MUMBAI: Grandmaster Alexander Areshchenko, playing black, drew his 11th round tie against GM Saidali Iuldachev in a mere 10 moves of Sicilian defence Najdorf variation. The second seed ended up with nine points in the 2nd Mumbai Mayors Cup International Open chess tournament and was declared the winner as per the Buchholz tie-break.

GM Koneru Humpy, GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko and GM P. Magesh Chandran also managed nine points each after 11 rounds at the Goregaon Sports Club, the tie-break calculation resulting in these three placed second, third and fourth respectively in the final rankings. The first four were awarded Rs. 1,65,000 each.

India’s highest ranked player, Koneru, playing white against Ukraine GM Yaroslav Zinchenko won after 41 moves of a Grunfeld defence game. She gained a centre pawn in the middle game and with her rival’s game collapsing, black resigned.

Top seed GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko beat GM Petr Kostenko in 47 moves.

Kostenko, playing white and opting for the English opening, sacrificed his knight for two pawns early. GM Magesh Chandran tied with the leader, defeating GM Vladimir Belov in 43 moves.

International Master Shyam Sundar finished eighth in the final list, ahead of higher-rated GMs.

The results (11th round): Saidali Iuldachev (Uzb) 8.5 drew with Alexander Areshchenko (Ukr) 9; Petr Kostenko (Kaz) 8 lost to Evgeny Miroshnichenko (Ukr) 9; Koneru Humpy 9 bt Yaroslav Zinchenko (Ukr) 8; Deepan Chakkravarthy 8.5 drew with Andrei Deviatkin (Rus) 8.5; P. Magesh Chandran 9 bt Vladimir Belov (Rus) 7.5; Georgy Timoshenko (Ukr) 8.5 bt Ram Krishnan 7.5; Suvrajit Saha 7.5 lost to Shukrat Safin 7.5; Shyam Nikhil 8 drew with Arghyadip Das 8; Shyam Sundar 8.5 bt Akash Thakur 7.5.

Final placings: 1. Areshchenko, 2. Koneru, 3. Miroshnichenko, 4. Magesh Chandran (all nine points), 5. Deviatkin, 6. Chakkravarthy, 7.Timoshenko, 8. Sundar, 9. Iuldachev, 10. Safin (all 8.5), 11. Zinchenko, 12. Gupta, 13. Himanshu, 14. Zia-ur-Rehman, 15. Kostenko, 16. Shivananda, 17. Satyapragyan, 18. Temirbayev, 19. Dinesh, 20. Das (all 8).

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