Korobov triumphs

Anton Korobov of Ukraine, with 6.5 points, won the title in style as he beat the top-seeded Radoslav Wojtaszek of Poland in the tenth and final round of the AICF-AAI Cup Category-18 chess tournament at the AAI Officers Institute here on Sunday.

Though he was under pressure with the black pieces, Korobov handled the situation nicely and came up with a rook check on the 36th move that forced the Polish Grandmaster to resign as his queen had been tricked into submission in the bargain. Evgeny Alekseev of Russia played an easy draw with K. Sasikiran to be the runner up with 5.5 points. Parimarjan Negi ended up at the bottom with four points, while former World junior champion Abhijeet Gupta pipped the top-seeded Wojtaszek on the tie-break after both had collected 4.5 points.

The results (tenth and final round): Parimarjan Negi 4 drew with Abhijeet Gupta 4.5; Evgeny Alekseev (Rus) 5.5 drew with K. Sasikiran 5; Radoslav Wojtaszek (pol) 4.5 lost to Anton Korobov (Ukr) 6.5.

Final standings: 1. Anton Korobov (Ukr) 6.5; 2. Evgeny Alekseev (Rus) 5.5; 3. K. Sasikiran 5; 4. Abhijeet Gupta 4.5 (23.50); 5. Radoslav Wojtaszek (Pol) 4.5 (21.75); 6. Parimarjan Negi 4. — Special Correspondent