Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus justified the top billing given to him by winning the Mumbai Mayor’s Cup International Chess tournament conducted by Venus Chess Academy and co sponsored by LIC of Inida.
In the final 11th round played at the Chetana College, Aleksandrov fought grittily to defeat Mark Paragua of Philippines to total 9.5 points and emerge a clear cut winner. Aleksandrov was richer by Rs 301000 (Three lakhs one thousand) which was the amount for the first prize.
There was a three way tie for the second place with Andrei Deviatkin of Russia, Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh andAttila Czebe of Hungary tallying 9 points each and finishing in the respective order. The prize money was shared and each player got Rs 1,53000.
Nikolai Chadaev of Russia, John Paul Gomez of Philippines, B Adhiban of India, Kirill Stupak of Belarus andDebashis Das of India, all scored 8.5 points and were placed fifth to 9th in the respective order. Abhijit Kunte with 8 points finished 10th.
GM Alexej Aleksandrov
Deviatkin and Stupak settled for a short draw while there were intense battles fought on the other top boards. Ziaur Rahman showed grit and plenty of fighting spirit to defeat overnight joint leader Gomez in an entertaining game which could have gone either way.
Aditya Udeshi, the only Indian hope going into the final round with 8 points was defeated by Czebe while Adhiban who started as the fourth seed, finished 7th.
Aleksandrov involved in the Scotch game against Paragua enjoyed a minuscule edge and though the Filipino did not miss any opportunity to trade pieces, Aleksandrov showed superior end game technique. The players had reached an rook and pawn ending with equal number of pawns but Aleksandrov enjoyed positional edge. He then netted a pawn and then the game after 66 moves.
Aleksandrov also won the last year’s Mumbai Mayor’s Cup.
Final Top Ten:
1 GM Aleksandrov Aleksej BLR 2606 – 9.5
2 GM Deviatkin Andrei RUS 2577 – 9
3 GM Rahman Ziaur BAN 2520 – 9
4 GM Czebe Attila HUN 2475 – 9
5 GM Chadaev Nikolai RUS 2563 – 8.5
6 GM Gomez John Paul PHI 2507 – 8.5
7 GM Adhiban B IND 2555 – 8.5
8 GM Stupak Kirill BLR 2513 – 8.5
9 IM Debashis Das IND 2425 – 8.5
10 GM Kunte Abhijit IND 2538 – 8
2 GM Deviatkin Andrei RUS 2577 – 9
3 GM Rahman Ziaur BAN 2520 – 9
4 GM Czebe Attila HUN 2475 – 9
5 GM Chadaev Nikolai RUS 2563 – 8.5
6 GM Gomez John Paul PHI 2507 – 8.5
7 GM Adhiban B IND 2555 – 8.5
8 GM Stupak Kirill BLR 2513 – 8.5
9 IM Debashis Das IND 2425 – 8.5
10 GM Kunte Abhijit IND 2538 – 8
No comments:
Post a Comment