Oliver Babrbosa receives the trophy from P Harikrishna and SS Ganguly Chief arbiter R. Anantharam is at the extreme right


Grandmaster Oliver Barbosa of Philippines edged out MR Lalith Babu of PSPB on better tiebreak to win the 19th International Open GM Chess Tournament, organised by Alekhine Chess Club, today. Both scored 7.5 points in ten rounds. Oliver also won a cash prize of four lakh rupees and Lalith babu had to be content with the runner up spot and collected two lakh and seventy five thousand rupees for his splendid efforts.

Oliver Babosa of Philippines drew with Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh in the final round to win the title

The Slav defence game between Oliver Barbosa and Ziaur Rahman ended a in a draw after 38 well fought moves, with both having queens, a minor piece and three pawns each. Oliver had to patiently wait for the game between Lalith and Vidit to get confirmation of his title, as a win for Vidit would have put Vidit on the top.

Lalith Babu (right) dashed the title hopes of Vidit Gujrathi

Lalith Babu shattered the dreams of Vidit to clinch the title in the Queens Indian defence employed by him, After Vidit exchnaged the queens on 23rd move, Lalith grabbed Vidit’s two connected pawns. Vidit tried in vain to halt the onward march of Lalith’s pawns on a- and b- files in a rook ending. Lalith played correctly to force the win in 97 moves.

In another rook and pawn ending arising out of a Scotch game, top seeded Nigel Short of England used his isolated passer pawn to inflict a defeat on former national champion P. Konguvel of PSPB.

Team mates B Adhiban and Abhijit Kunte of PSPB waited for 25 moves of a Grunfeld defence game to make the formal draw, as per regulations of the tournament.

Landa Konstantin of Russia drew with former world under 16 champion SP Sethuraman

GM Henrik Danielsen of Island lost the game to Sergey Fedorchuk of Russia, as he did not complete 40 moves in the stipulated time control. The draw result between Alekhine Chess Club’s Diptayan Ghosh and Tamil Nadu’s Kunal, pushed Diptayan out of contention for a prize, as he was placed 21st. Kunal, on 20th position was just inside the prize list. Deep Sengupta of Kolkata finished a creditable tenth place, with a win over PSPB’s grandmaster S. Arun Prasad.

India No.2 Pentala Harikrishna and Kolkata GM SS Gnaguly distributed the prizes.

Sergey Fedrochuk of Ukraine defeated Henrik Danielsen of Iceland in the final round

Final Rank