Chithambram wins Int`l Chess Open

Chennai: FIDE Master V R Aravindh Chithambaram emerged the champion after the final round of the Chennai Grandmaster International Open Chess tournament held alongside the World Championship Match here on Saturday.

Aravindh, for bagging nine points out of a possible 11, took the winner`s trophy and the cash award of Rs two lakh. Grandmasters Neverov Valeriy (Ukraine) and S P Sethuraman (India) shared the second spot with 8.5 points. Half a point adrift were GMs Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, V Vishnu Prasanna (both India) and Borovikov Vladislav (Ukraine). Borovikov, incidentally, swept off his final round Indian opponent, GM Lalith Babu, with a bolt-from-the-blue queen sacrifice. The 14-year-old Aravindh, who already has National titles in Under 11, 13 and 19 titles under his belt, is also an Under-14 silver medallist from World Youth Chess Championship. His ELO 2728 performance rating here fetches 80 ELOs taking him past the 2400 mark. Earlier, 15-year-old Chennai boy B Kumaran made an International Master Norm, bringing the Norms tally (2 GM Norms, 6 IM Norms, 1 WIM Norm) here to nine. This GM event, sponsored by the Government of Tamil Nadu, carries a total prize fund of Rs 10 lakh, including cash awards for top 35 players and cash prizes for various categories. Final Placings : 1 V R Aravindh Chithambaram (India) 9, 2-3 Neverov Valeriy (Ukr), S P Sethuraman (Ind) 8.5, 4-6 Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, V Vishnu Prasanna (both India), Borovikov Vladislav (Ukr) 8, 7-8 Mozharov Mikhail (Rus), Babujian Levon (Arm) 7.5, 9-10 M R Lalith Babu (Ind), Mirzoev Azer (Aze) 7 pts.