Yu Ruiyuan triumphs
Arvind Aaron
For the first time an international open in India has been won by an untitled player.
China’s Yu Ruiyuan, who achieved the feat, also completed the IM and GM norms in the SDAT-RMK Chennai Open international Grandmaster chess tournament that concluded here on Thursday.
Drawn games ruled the top tables on Thursday. Yu, who held a half point lead at the start of the round, drew with Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) with the white pieces to win the title. Remaining undefeated, he totalled nine points from eleven games.
Kore’s good show
Pune’s Akshayraj Kore celebrated his return by completing his maiden GM. He won seven games, drew three and only lost to Yu. Though he tied for the second spot, Kore finished third on tie-break. Top seed Aleksandrov, who played well from the start, bagged the second place.
In the final round, Kore held the upper hand for most part before drawing against last year’s champion Kravtsiv of Ukraine.
Cash prizes totalling over Rs.10 lakhs were distributed along with the trophies.
Final placings: 1 Yu Ruiyuan (Chn) 9/11; 2-6. A. Aleksandrov (Blr), Akshayraj Kore (Ind), John Paul Gomez (Phi), M. Kravtsiv (Ukr), M. Dzhumaev (Uzb) 8.5 each; 7-18. M. Oleksienko (Ukr), S.P. Sethuraman (Ind), Hoang Thang Trang (Hun), Vishnu Prasanna (Ind), Zeng Chongsheng (Chn), P. Karthikeyan, Deepan Chakkravarthy, Navin Kanna, S. Nitin, A. Rajpara (all Ind), O, Barbosa (Phi), R.R. Laxman (Ind) 8 each.
Leading results (final round): Yu Ruiyuan drew with Dzhumaev; A. Kore drew with Kravtsiv; Barbosa drew with Aleksandrov; Hoang Thanh Trang drew with Oleksienko; Ma Qun lost to Gomez; P. Karthikeyan drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy.
Source: http://www.thehindu.com
Impressive.