Young Indian Grandmaster Sahaj Grover came up with his best performance in a year, ending on the spot top in the Durban International Open Chess Tournament that concluded in Durban at the International Convention Centre.
It was a tense final round for Grover in which he overcame the challenge of International Master Daniel Cowdery of South Africa to take his tally up to nine points out of a possible 11.
Sabino Brunello of Italy had the better tiebreak on the same score after he beat compatriot Axel Rombaldoni in his final round game.
While Sabino won the title on tiebreak the first prize was shared and Grover went home richer by 25000 Rand (About USD 2500).
The third place went to former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta who defeated GM Gilberto Hernandez of Mexico in another decisive game of the 11th round.
Speaking about his best game in Durban said the ninth round game against higher ranked Argentenian Grandmaster Sandro Mareco was quite nice. “I played this speculative sacrifice and had to go all out for an attack, luckily it was all over quickly,” Grover said.
This was a moral booster for Grover just ahead of the World junior championship in less than a week’s time at Pune. “Yes, I hope I can carry this form in the world junior which I feel is a very tough field, I just hope to play my best there,” he said.
Sabino Brunello led the tournament and was caught by Grover just towards the end as the Indian scored four wins in the last four games. Brunello played a gem of a game to beat Rombaldoni and was the deserved winner on tiebreak.
Starting as the top seed, Gupta lost to Brunello midway through the tournament and also recovered towards the end to finish a clear third. That it was a close race between the top three is evident from the fact that five players tying for the fourth spot were a full point behind Gupta who scored 8.5 points.
Meanwhile, in the World youth championships being organised simultaneously, the Indian team bagged the highest number of medals to be the best team here. The Indians won two gold, two silver and two bronze in all.
The Indian youngsters took home the title in the Under-10 sections wherein Nihal Sarin and Divya Deshmukh bagged the Gold medals.
Top seeded Indian boys in the under-16 and under-18 section, Aravindh Chithambaram and Grandmaster Vaibhav Suri finished off with Silver medal in their respective group while R Vaishali and Leon Luke Mendonca won the bronze in under-14 girls and under-8 boys category.