Top-seed Ponkratov wins Chennai Open chess title

Top-seed Russian Grand Master Pavel Pankratov justified his billing to clinch the title in the 12th Chennai Open international GM chess tournament 2020 here on Saturday.

Pankratov finished with eight points from 10 rounds and won the title on the basis of a superior tie-break score.

In a first, the tournament saw an eight way tie for the top spot.

Grand Masters Jose Eduaro Martinez Alcantara (Peru), Sergei Yudin (Russia), Aleksej Aleksandrov (Belarus), Ivan Rozum (Russia), Stanislav Bogdanovich (Ukraine), Kirill Stupak (Belarus) and V Vishnu Prasanna apart from Pankratov were tied for the top spot with eight points.

International Master norms were achieved by Chennai schoolboy G B Harshavardhan, Jimmy Jubin, V Pranav and S Rohit Krishna while K Priyanka made a WIM Norm.

Pankratov received the Sakthi Group Dr N Mahalingam Trophy and a cash award of Rs 3 lakh.

Peru GM Martinez Alcantara finished first runner-up and took home Rs 2 lakh.

Final placings: 1-8. Pavel Ponkratov, 2. Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara, Sergei Yudin (Russia), Aleksej Aleksandrov (Belarus), Ivan Rozum (Russia), Stanislav Bogdanovich (Ukraine), Kirill Stupak (Belarus), Vishnu Prasanna (Ind) 8 points, 9-15.

N R Visakh, Jimmy Jubin, Rohith Krishna, Mitrabha Guha (all India), Alexei Fedorov (Belarus), Valeriy Neverov (Ukraine), P Karthikeyan (India) 7.5.

Important results--Round 10: Rozum Ivan 8 drew with Pavel Ponkratov 8, Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara (Peru) 8 beat M R Venkatesh (7), Muhammad Khusenkhojaev (Tajikistan) 7 lost to Aleksej Aleksandrov 8, Vishnu Prasanna (8) beat Aleksey Goganov (Russia) 7, Stanislav Bogdanovich (Ukraine) 8 beat Maxim Lugovskoy (Russia) 7.

Sergei Yudin (Russia) 8 beat AL Muthaiah (7), Alexei Fedorov (Belarus) 7.5 beat Ameir Moheb (Egy) 6.5, Ravichandran Siddharth (6.5) lost to N R Visakh (7.5), Sidhant Mohapatra (7) drew with Camilo Rios Cristhian (Colombia) 7, V Saravanan (6.5) lost to Valeriy Neverov (Ukraine) 7.5.