Former world under-16 champion B. Adhiban won the Barcelona Sants Open chess tournament that concluded at Barcelona on Monday. Adhiban was richer by Rs. 2.40 lakh after the triumph.
Indian players have given a sterling display during the European summer as they won most of the top flight open competitions. P. Harikrishna won at Biel, Parimarjan Negi won at Copenhagen, S.P. Sethuraman triumphed at Leiden, and M.R. Lalith Babu took the title at Vlissingen.
Adhiban was the only titled Indian in the 298-player contest. The event is also part of the 10th Catalan Chess Circuit. In the final round, he scored a crushing 23-move victory over Vladimir Burmakin. The field consisted of 23 GMs and 28 IMs. Adhiban finished one point ahead of top seed Lazaro Bruzon of Cuba.
Adhiban was very impressive and finished half-a-point ahead of others with 8.5 out of a possible 10. The second to fifth places were shared by Cori Jorge (Peru), Vladimir Potkin (Russia), Jan Gustafsson (Germany) and Firat Burak (Turkey) with eight points each.
