Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta missed out on a podium finish after losing to Eduardo Iturrizaga of Venezuela in the ninth and final round of the 16th Dubai International Open chess tournament here. Gupta, with 6.5 points, had to be content with fourth place.
Edouard triumphs Romain Edouard of France won the title defeating top seed Anton Korobov of Ukraine in the final round. The French GM ended on eight points, out of a possible nine, and this was amongst his best performances ever. Edouard got the winner’s cheque for $10,000.
It turned out to be a two-way tie for the second spot as Iturrizaga was joined by Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine on seven points. Kuzubov beat last year’s winner Aleksandr Rakhmanov of Russia.
After the tie was resolved, Iturrizaga finished second.
Gupta was fourth along with Andrei Istratescu of France, the Armenian duo of Tigran Petrosian and Zaven Andriasian, Gawain Jones of England and Stevic Hrvoje of Croatia. The other Indians to finish among the prize winners were M.R. Lalith Babu and M. Shyam Sundar after a draw between them in the final round. Both Lalith and Shyam ended on six points apiece and finished tied 10th.
Important results (final round): Anton Korobov (UKR, 6) lost to Romain Edouard (FRA, 8); Eduardo Iturrizaga (VEN, 7) bt Abhijeet Gupta (6.5); Stevic Hrvoje (CRO, 6.5) drew with Gawain Jones (ENG, 6.5); Yuriy Kuzubov (UKR, 7) bt Aleksandr Rakhmanov (RUS, 7); Istratescu Andrei (FRA, 6.5) bt Pontus Carlsson (SWE, 5.5); Tigran Petrosian (ARM, 6.5) bt Ebrahim Ahmadinia (IRI, 5.5).
Anuar Ismagambetov (KAZ, 5.5) lost to Zaven Andriasian (ARM, 6.5); M. Shyam Sundar (6) drew with M.R. Lalith Babu (6); Vladimir Akopian (ARM, 6) bt Debashis Das (5); Axel Bachmann (PAR, 5.5) drew with Swapnil Dhopade (5.5); Ziaur Rahman (BAN, 6) bt C.R.G. Krishna (5); Diptayan Ghosh (5) drew with Prince Bajaj (5); Sahaj Grover (5) drew with Abhishek Kelkar (5).
Ashwin Jayaram (5.5) bt Martin Lokander (SWE, 4.5); Sayantan Das (5.5) bt Harshal Shahi (4.5); V. Karthik (5) drew with S. Ravi Teja (5); Ahmed Holi Ali Moawia (SUD, 4.5) drew with Aniruddha Deshpande (4.5); Felix Tuomainen (SWE, 4) lost to Ivana Maria Furtado (5).