Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly downed Cuban counterpart Ortiz Suarez Reynaldo to tally 7.5 points and annexed the crown in the final day of LIC international Grandmasters Chess here on Tuesday.
The tournament, organised by Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy and Allsport Foundation, saw an intense contest for the title with a three-way overnight leadership vying for the top honour in the ninth and final round. While Ganguly won his game, the other two overnight leaders – GM Nigel Short of England and GM Lu Shanglei of China – drew their match on the top board to pave the way for the former.
Ganugly, the local favourite, earned the appreciation of the chess connoisseurs with his courageous display against Reynaldo. He opened up the kingside in a Sicilian defence and his two bishops ensured an attack which fetched him a pawn after which it was a matter of technique for the Indian GM.
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This was the first international title for Ganguly after a break of more than two years. His last triumph came in November 2012 when he won Fujairah International Chess Championship in UAE. “This is my maiden title in the city where I live. I have won most of the titles abroad and it has a special feeling to win something in front of home crowd,” Ganguly said after receiving the winner’s purse of Rs. 2 lakh.
On the top board the Short- Shanglei match was a quiet affair. Both players appeared content in manoeuvring their pieces in a Catalan set up. With neither side getting any breakthrough, the peace treaty was signed on the 41st move where both had a rook and knight and 4 pawns left on the board.
Four players –Short, Shanglei, Deep Sengupta and Sandipan Chanda- were tied on seven points each for the second spot. Top seeded Short, having the best Buchholz tie-break score, won the runner-up position while Shanglei – the World junior champion – came third. Another local GM Sandipan Chanda, who skipped the first two rounds for personal reasons, showed the best progress winning six games to finish fifth behind Deep Sengupta.
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Important results (final round): Nigel Short (Eng) 7 drew with Lu Shanglei (Chn) 7,Surya Sekhar Ganguly 7.5 bt Ortiz Suarez Isan Reynaldo (Cub) 6, Wang Chen (Chn) 6.5 drew G.N. Gopal 6.5, K. Ratnakaran 6 lost to Sandipan Chanda 7, Deep Sengupta 7 bt Kirill Stupak (Blr) 6, Lin Chen (Chn) 5.5 lost to Dimitry Kokarev (Rus) 6.5, Quesada Perez Yuniesky (Cub) 6.5 bt Deepan Chakkravarthy 5.5, M.R. Lalith Babu 6 drew with R. Laxman 6, Neelotpal Das 5.5 drew with Pavel Kotsur (Kaz) 5.5, S. Satyaspragyan 5 lost to Vladislav Kovalev (Blr) 6, Sayantan Das 5.5 drew with Thomas Oral (Cze) 5.5.
Top 10 positions: 1. Surya Shekhar Ganguly 7.5, 2. Nigel Short 7 3.Lu Shanglei 7, 4. Deep Sengupta 7, 5. Sandipan Chanda 7, 6. Wang Chen 6.5, 7. G.N. Gopal 6.5, 8. Quesada Perez Yuniesky 6.5, 9. Dmitry Kokarev 6.5, 10. Xu Yinglun 6.