Gagare earns Grandmaster title with win over Sekar

Top seed Shardul Gagare of Maharashtra became India's latest Grandmaster after registered his third successive win by defeating B Sekar in a third round match of the IIFL Wealth Mumbai International Open Chess Tournament here today.
The pre-requisite for a Grandmaster title is to achieve three GM Norms and the rating of 2,500.
The 18-year-old Gagare from Ahmednagar district commenced the tournament with an International ELO rating of 2497, needing precious three rating points to touch the magical mark of 2,500, which he achieved with a convincing third round win over Sekar.
Sharing the lead with him were International Masters Swapnil Dhopade, Stany G A, Nitin S and Himanshu Sharma.

In the International Juniors event being held concurrently, top-seeded FIDE Master Mohammad Fahad Rahman of Bangladesh was in joint lead with two points from as many wins.
Sharing the lead with him were Sadhwani Raunak, Sankalp Gupta, D Gukesh, Aditya Mittal and Mendonca Leon Luke.

This 171-player nine-round International Junior event has participants from six countries. The event runs till February 5.
Results: Seniors (Round 3): B Sekar (2) lost to Shardul Gagare (3), Swapnil S Dhopade (3) bt A Ra Harikrishnan (2), R Praggnanandhaa (2) lost to G A Stany (3), S Nitin (3) bt Chirag Satkar (2), Vinay Kumar Matta (2) lost to Himanshu Sharma (3), Bhosale Snehal (2.5) drew with Khamparia Akshat (2.5), Ketan Boricha (2) lost to Himal Gusain (3), Bhavik C Bharambe (3) bt Vikramaditya Kulkarni (2), Vinayak Kulkarni (2.5) drew with A L Muthaiah (2.5), Niranjan Navalgund (2.5) drew with Ameya Audi (2.5).

Important and Indian results round 5 (Indians unless
stated): Le Quang Liem (Vie, 4) drew with Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Iri, 4); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (4) drew with Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb, 4); Wei Yi (Chn, 4) drew with Wen Yang (Chn, 4); Murtas Kazhgaleyev (Kaz, 3.5) drew with Ni Hua (Chn, 3.5); Jahongir Vakhidov (Uzb, 3.5) drew with Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (3.5); S P Sethuraman (4) beat Deep Sengupta (3); B Adhiban (3.5) beat Gundavaa Bayarsaikhan (Mgl, 3); Temur Igonin (Uzb, 3.5) beat Abhijeet Gupta (2.5); M R Lalith Babu (2.5) lost to Wang Yiye (Chn, 3.5); Munkhgal Gombosuren (Mgl, 3) drew with Aravindh Chithambaram (3); Fang Yan (Chn, 3) beat Murali Karthikeyan (2); Abdyjapar Asyl (Kgz, 3) beat Rahul Srivatshav (2).

Women: Bhakti Kulkarni (4.5) beat Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie, 3.5); Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova (Uzb, 4) beat Hoang Thi Bao Tram (Vie, 3); Atousa Pourkashiyan (Iri, 3.5) drew with Mitra Hejazipour (Iri, 3.5); Li Xueyi (Chn, 3.5) drew with Soumya Swaminathan (3); R Vaishali (3) drew with Guo Qi (Chn, 3); Pham Le Thao Nguyen (Vie, 3) drew with Padmini Rout (2.5); Dinara Saduakassova (Kaz, 3.5) beat Batchimeg Tuvshintugs (Mgl, 2.5); B Pratyusha (3) beat Mary Ann Gomes (2.5).