It took Georgia’s Levan Pantsulaia just 13 moves to draw his top-table game against S.L. Narayanan but he had to wait for over six hours to know his fate. With the next six boards producing decisive results, there was a seven-way tie for the title at eight points from 10 rounds.
Eventually, when the tie-break rules were applied, Pantsulaia managed to pip young Iranian contender Masoud Mosadeghpur on Sonneborn-Berger (SB) score by just 0.25 points for the top prize of ₹6 lakh in the Delhi International Open Grandmasters chess tournament here on Wednesday.
Even the third and fourth prizes were claimed by overseas GMs, Belarus’ Kirill Stupak and Tajikistan’s Farrukh Amonatov. Diptayan Ghosh, Abhijeet Gupta and Narayanan filled the fifth to seventh spots.
The Category ‘C’, for those rated under 1500, Bihar’s Bir Kumar took the honours with 9.5 points. Nishchay Sharma (MP) and R. Rishi (TN) came second and third following a five-way tie for the runner-up spot at nine points.
Leading 10th round results (Indians unless stated): S.L. Narayanan (8) drew with Levan Pantsulaia (Geo, 8); Farrukh Amonatov (Tjk, 8) bt N.R. Visakh (7); Abhijeet Gupta (8) bt D. Gukesh (7); Masoud Mosadeghpour (Iri, 8) bt E. Arjun (7); Diptayan Ghosh (8) bt C. Praveen Kumar (7); Karen Movsziszian (Arm, 7) lost to Kirill Stupak (8); Swapnil Dhopade (7.5) drew with Tran Tuan Minh (Vie, 8).
Final standings (top-7, with prize-money in ₹): Pantsulaia (6 lakh), Mosadeghpour (5 lakh), Stupak (4 lakh), Amonatov (3 lakh), Diptayan (2 lakh), Abhijeet (1.50 lakh) and S. L. Narayanan (1 lakh) (8 points each).
