Gupta loses to Iturrizaga in Dubai finale

Dubai: Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta missed out on a podium finish after losing to Eduardo Iturrizaga of Venezuela in the 9th and final round of 16th Dubai International open chess tournament that concluded here.

Having done all the hard work, Gupta fell at the final hurdle and had to be content with a fourth place finish on 6.5 points. Romain Edouard of France won the tournament defeating top seed Anton Korobov of Ukraine in the final round game. The French Grandmaster ended on a high scoring eight points out of a possible nine and this was amongst his best performance ever. Edouard, for his efforts, gets the winner`s cheque of USD 10000. It turned out to be a two way tie for the second spot as Iturrizaga was joined by Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine on seven points. Kuzubov defeated last year`s winner Aleksandr Rakhmanov of Russia. After the tie was resolved, Iturrizaga finished second. Gupta finished fourth in the company of Andrei Istratescu of France, Armenian duo of Tigran Petrosian and Zaven Andriasian, Gawain Jones of England and Stevic Hrvoje of Croatia. Apart from Gupta, the other Indians to finish among the prize winners were M R Lalith Babu and M Shyam Sundar after a draw between them in the final round. Both Babu and Sundar ended on six points apiece and finished tied 10th. It was heartbreak for Gupta in the game against Iturrizaga as the Indian could not get going. The Venezuelan went for the Anti-Grunfeld opening as white and even though Gupta equalised in the opening the position remained a bit passive. While trying to break free, Gupta went for the central breakthrough which did not yield desired result as Iturrizaga gained control on the queen side to exert pressure. Gupta erred once more in calculation and ended up losing two pawns and the rest was Child`s play for Iturrizaga. The game lasted 51 moves. Lalith Babu and Shyam Sundar battled it our in a Caro Kann defense game. Playing white, Sundar got an optical edge but soon it was clear that Babu had enough counter play. The pieces got traded at regular intervals and the players arrived at an equal opposite colours Bishop endgame wherein the peace was signed after 30 moves. Important and Indian results final round (Indians unless specified): Anton Korobov (Ukr, 6) lost to Romain Edouard (Fra, 8); Eduardo Iturrizaga (Ven, 7) beat Abhijeet Gupta (6.5); Stevic Hrvoje (Cro, 6.5) drew with Gawain Jones (Eng, 6.5); Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr, 7) beat Aleksandr Rakhmanov (Rus, 7); Istratescu Andrei (Fra, 6.5) beat Pontus Carlsson (Swe, 5.5); Tigran Petrosian (Arm, 6.5) beat Ebrahim Ahmadinia (Iri, 5.5); Anuar Ismagambetov (Kaz, 5.5) lost to Zaven Andriasian (Arm, 6.5); M Shyam Sundar (6) drew with M R Lalith Babu (6); Vladimir Akopian (Arm, 6) beat Debashis Das (5); Axel Bachmann (Par, 5.5) drew with Swapnil Dhopade (5.5); Ziaur Rahman (Ban, 6) beat C R G Krishna (5); Diptayan Ghosh (5) drew with Prince Bajaj (5); Sahaj Grover (5) drew with Abhishek Kelkar (5); Ashwin Jayaram (5.5) beat Martin Lokander (Swe, 4.5); Sayantan Das (5.5) beat Harshal Shahi (4.5); V Karthik (5) drew with S Ravi Teja (5); Ahmed Holi Ali Moawia (Sud, 4.5) drew with Aniruddha Deshpande (4.5); Felix Tuomainen (Swe, 4) lost to Ivana Maria Furtado (5).