Maxim Turov of Russia offered and got a 17-move draw in the final round to win the Chennai Open 2010 International Grandmaster chess tournament that came to a close here on Wednesday. Turov won eight games and drew three to win the title by a clear margin and take home the trophy and Rs.2 lakh prize money. Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh who accepted his draw offer took the second place on tiebreak.
Lalith Babu drew with Richard Bitoon of the Philippines after 34 moves on board two to take the fourth place.
Y. Pradeep, Secretary, RMK Residential School, handed over the trophy. Cash prizes totalling Rs.10,14,500 were distributed. Sponsored by LIC and ONGC, this event was organised by the Sports Promotion Foundation and the TNSCA.
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Safety first approach
The top two boards were drawn without much fight as players wanted to adopt a safety first approach.
On table three, Siddharth sacrificed a knight for two pawns against Ashwin Jayaram and had sufficient compensation. On move 41, Ashwin’s queen was trapped and he resigned. This allowed Siddharth, who made his GM norm earlier, to finish third.
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Mumbai’s Western Railway player, Vikramaditya Kamble came close to defeating Pavel Kotsur with the black pieces after winning a piece. The Kazakh player was made to sweat before making a 67-move draw. Kamble finished fifth.
India’s last hope for a third Grandmaster norm from the event did not materialise as Anwesh Upadhyaya, who needed a win, managed only a draw with the black pieces.
The results (Round 11, final): Maxim Turov drew with Z. Rahman, Lalith Babu drew with R. Bitoon, R. Siddharth bt Ashwin Jayaram, P. Kotsur drew with V. Kamble, A. Zubarev drew with A. Upadhyaya, O. Dimakiling lost to R. Jumabayev, S. Kidambi bt P. Konguvel, S. Vijayalakshmi bt B.T. Muralikrishnan, Fenil Shah drew with M. Manik, Swapnil Dhopade drew with Ghaem Maghami, C. Praveen Kumar drew with D. Kryakvin, S. Roy Chowdhury drew with S. Arun Prasad, Saptarshi Roy drew with M. Kravtsiv, M. Dzhumaev bt G.B. Prakash.
Final placings (Indians, unless stated): 1 Maxim Turov (Rus) 9.5/11; 2-4. Z. Rahman (Ban), R. Siddharth, M.R. Lalith Babu 9 each; 5-9. V. Kamble, R. Jumabayev (Kaz), R. Bitoon (Phi), S. Kidambi, S. Vijayalakshmi 8.5 each; 10-22. Anwesh Upadhyaya, M. Dzhumaev (Uzb), M. Manik (Svk), M.R. Venkatesh, Fenil Shah, Deepan Chakkravarthy, A. Zubarev (Ukr), Ashwin Jayaram, Swayams Mishra, P. Kotsur (Kaz), M.S. Thejkumar, R.R. Laxman, Akash Thakur 8 each.
Special prizes: Senior Above-55: 1 Malik Jan Mohamed 5.5, 2 S.S. Dave 5. Under-10: 1 B. Harsha 5.5, 2. Bansi Prathima 5.5. Under-16: 1 Ankit Rajpara 7, 2 G.V. Sai Krishna 7. Under-20: 1 Anwesh Upadhyaya 8, 2 M. Kravtsiv 7.5. Best woman: 1 Nisha Mohota 7.5, 2 S. Meenakshi. Best Tamil Nadu prize: P. Konguven (men), J. Saranya (women).