Philippines' Oliver Barbosa wins Kolkata Open chess title

Grandmaster Oliver Barbosa of Philippines edged out MR Lalith Babu of PSPB on a better tiebreak to win the 6th Kolkata Open (19th International Open GM Chess Tournament) here Friday.

Both scored 7.5 points over ten rounds at the tourney organised by the Alekhine Chess Club at the Gorky Sadan.

Oliver also won a cash prize of Rs.4 lakh and Lalith Babu had to be content with the runner up spot and collecting Rs.2.75 lakh for his splendid efforts.

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 the Indian on the top.

Lalith Babu shattered Vidit's dreams of clinching the title by employing the Queens Indian defence.

After Vidit exchanged the queens on the 23rd move, Lalith grabbed Vidit's two connected pawns. Vidit tried in vain to halt the onward march of Lalith's pawns. 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.

GM Henrik Danielsen of Island lost to Sergey Fedorchuk of Russia, as he did not complete 40 moves in the stipulated time control.