Swapnil Dhopade clinches title

Grandmaster Swapnil S Dhopade of Maharashtra, with an overall tally of eight points, emerged victorious in the Rs 7.5 lakh prize money IIFL Wealth Mumbai International Open Chess tournament, which concluded here today.
International Master Stany G A of Karnataka finished a close second with 7.5 points, while Chandigarh's Himal Gusain with seven points was placed third.
Top seed and GM-elect Shardul Garge of Maharashtra could only manage a poor joint fourth place finish along with seven other players, all with 6.5 points each in the tournament, which was held at the Mount Litera School International in suburban Bandra.
Dhopade pocketed the winner's prize of Rs 1.5 lakh, while second-placed Stany took home Rs 1.2 lakh and Gusain got the third-place prize of Rs 1 lakh.

In the all-important final round, overnight leader Dhopade -- playing with the white pieces -- drew with fellow Maharashtra player Amardeep S Bartakke, in a quiet Queen's Indian game that lasted 24 moves.
The draw ensured Dhopade the pole position with eight points.

The other two contenders, Stany and Gusain, also shared honours by playing out a draw on the second board.
Top seed Gagare was unable to force a win against Ravi Teja S Gagare (6.5) and had to settle for a draw.
Results (Round 9): Swapnil S Dhopade (8) drew with Bartakke Amardeep S (6.5), Himal Gusain (7) drew with Stany G A (7.5), Ravi Teja S (6.5) drew with Shardul Gagare (6.5), Krishna Teja N (6.5) drew with Bhavik C Bharambe (6.5), Dinesh K Sharma (6) drew with Himanshu Sharma (6.5), Muthaiah A L (5.5) lost to Chakravarthi Reddy M (6.5), Niranjan Navalgund (6) drew with Matta Vinay Kumar (6), Parnali S Dharia (5.5) lost to Abhishek Das (6.5), Nitin S (6) bt Ojas Kulkarni (5), Adhithya S (6) bt Vikramaditya Kulkarni (5).

Amongst the women, Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine proved
stronger than the rest as she won her last round game to reach the seven points mark for the top woman prize. Grandmaster D Harika had to be content with the fifth place in this section while Padmini Rout also finished in the prize list in this section.
Important and Indian results round 10 (Indians unless specified): Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 8) beat David Anton Guijarro (Esp, 7); Sebastien Maze (Fra, 7) lost to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 8); P Harikrishna (7.5) drew with Li Chao B (Chn, 7.5); Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 7.5) drew with S P Sethuraman (7.5); Yu Yangyi (Chn, 6.5) lost to Gawain Jones (Eng, 7.5); Dmitry Jakovenko (Rus, 7) drew with Vidit Gujrathi (7); Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 7.5) beat Axel Bachmann (Par, 6.5); M R Lalith Babu (6.5) lost to Richard Rapport (Hun, 7.5); Zoltan Almasi (Hun, 7) beat G N Gopal (6.5); Fabien Libiszewski (Fra, 6.5) drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly (6.5); Eylon Nakar (Isr, 6) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (7); Erik Blomqvist (Swe, 5.5) lost to V Anand (6.5); Sandipan Chanda (6.5) beat Valentina Gunina (Rus, 5.5); Pinho Paulo (Por, 5.5) lost to V Vishnu Prasanna (6.5); Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul, 6.5) beat Prasanna Rao (5.5); Arkadij Naiditsch (Aze, 5.5) drew with Padmini Rout (5.5); Nezad Husein Aziz (Qat, 5) lost to D Harika (6); S Satyapragyan (5) lost to Zhao Xue (Chn, 6); Hauge Lars Oskar (Nor, 5) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (6); Ralf Akesson (Swe, 5.5) drew with Siva Mahadevan (5.5); S Kidambi (5) drew with Sebastian Mihajlov (Nor, 5); Ripari Marcelo (Arg, 5) drew with Anurag Mhamal (5); Nisha Mohota (4.5) lost to Igor Bitensky (Isr, 5.5); B Pratyusha (5) beat Goncalves Jose Antonio Silvei (Bra, 4).