Aleksandrov is the winner of Mumbai Mayor’s Cup

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

GM Oliver Barbosa clinched title in Odisha International chess meet

The 4th Odisha International GM Open Chess Tournament took place from 29th May to 5th June at the Banquet Hall, Campus 6, KIIT University Campus, Bhubaneswar – 24, Odisha, India.

The tournament is organized by the All Orissa Chess Association, KIIT University Bhubaneswar and under the guidance of All India Chess Federation. 249 players from 11 countries competed in the 10-rounds Swiss event.

GM Oliver Barbosa from Philippines took a clear first place with 8.5/10 points and the prize of Rs. 2,00,000/-. Earlier this year Barbosa won another strong tournament in India – Parsvnath International Open.

GM Oliver Barbosa

Most of the top rated participants migrate to Mumbai to continue the tour in the 5th Mayor’s Cup International Chess Tournament.

Last year winner in Odisha (Orissa) was GM Aleksej Aleksandrov.

Final standings:

1 GM Barbosa Oliver PHI 2550 – 8.5
2 GM Chadaev Nikolai RUS 2563 – 8
3 IM Grover Sahaj IND 2506 – 8
4 GM Hoang Thanh Trang HUN 2449 – 8
5 GM Podolchenko Evgeniy BLR 2464 – 8
6 IM Vaibhav Suri IND 2485 – 8
7 IM Vishnu Prasanna V IND 2431 – 7.5
8 GM Deviatkin Andrei RUS 2577 – 7.5
9 IM Debashis Das IND 2425 – 7.5
10 GM Gomez John Paul PHI 2507 – 7.5
11 GM Aleksandrov Aleksej BLR 2606 – 7.5
12 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J IND 2461 – 7.5
13 IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh R IND 2355 – 7.5
14 GM Paragua Mark PHI 2521 – 7
15 GM Sengupta Deep IND 2554 – 7
16 Gusain Himal IND 2271 – 7
17 IM Venkatesh M R IND 2517 – 7
18 FM Ghosh Diptayan IND 2418 – 7
19 FM Rajesh V A V IND 2364 – 7
20 GM Laxman R R IND 2417 – 7
21 IM Priyadharshan K IND 2393 – 7
22 IM Gara Anita HUN 2329 – 7
23 WGM Meenakshi Subbaraman IND 2300 – 7
24 Arun Karthik R IND 2277 – 7
25 GM Ziatdinov Raset UZB 2370 – 6.5
26 Karthikeyan Murali IND 2329 – 6.5
27 Pradeep Kumar R A IND 2269 – 6.5
28 GM Kunte Abhijit IND 2538 – 6.5
29 CM Prince Bajaj IND 2255 – 6.5
30 IM Shivananda B S IND 2363 – 6.5
31 IM Sangma Rahul IND 2327 – 6.5
32 IM Karthikeyan P IND 2421 – 6.5
33 FM Das Sayantan IND 2251 – 6.5
34 Kathmale Sameer IND 2241 – 6.5
35 Phadke Sohan IND 2266 – 6.5
36 Bitan Banerjee IND 2342 – 6.5
37 GM Stupak Kirill BLR 2513 – 6.5
38 WGM Padmini Rout IND 2345 – 6.5
39 IM Anwesh Upadhyaya IND 2413 – 6.5
40 Praveen Prasad P IND 2248 – 6.5
41 Sahoo Utkal Ranjan IND 2218 – 6.5
42 IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy IND 2361 – 6.5
43 Roy Prantik IND 2210 – 6.5
44 IM Himanshu Sharma IND 2424 – 6.5
45 Pranav Vijay IND 2174 – 6.5
46 FM Chatterjee Debaraj BAN 2316 – 6.5
47 Sidhant Mohapatra IND 2209 – 6.5
48 Tiwari Arjun IND 2244 – 6.5
49 Padhya Saumil IND 2236 – 6.5
50 Michelle Catherina P IND 2073 – 6.5