Gupta loses in London open finale

Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta went down fighting against Jon Ludvig Hammer of Norway and had to settle for a tied seventh place finish in the open section of London Classic here today.
After a disappointing exit by former world champion Viswanathan Anand from the quarterfinal of the premier event, Gupta, too, could not make it to the podium as he lost his way against Hammer.
Hammer won the open section scoring 7.5 points and Abhijeet ended on 6.5.
Among other Indians in the fray in the last round, Tania Sachdev and Eesha Karavade also ended on the losing side against Peter Sowray of England and Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova, respectively.

Eesha finished the tournament on six points, while Tania scored five points out of a possible nine.
Grandmasters D Harika and M Shyam Sundar finished on a positive note by winning the last round games with both scoring six points in all.
It was an anti-Grunfeld defense by Hammer that allowed Gupta to equalise early but the Norwegian kept pressing on the queen side. Gupta sacrificed two pawns to lure the white queen out but missed out on a forced draw vide a piece sacrifice in the middle game. Once on top Hammer gave no chances.