BHUBANESWAR 06-Jun-2011 145
Grandmaster Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus beat overnight sole leader Panchanathan Magesh Chandran (Tamil Nadu) in the 11th and last round to emerge champion in the 3rd Orissa Open International Chess Tournament for KIIT Cup here at KIIT University campus today.
Third seed Aleksandrov, who suffered a shock defeat in the fourth round against India`s G A Stany, fought back nicely to finish at the top of the table with nine points, which included eight wins and two draws. He received the top prize of the Rs 2 lakhs.
Magesh, who tasted his first defeat in the tournament, tied for the second to fourth positions with top seed Tigran Petrosian (Armenia) and Abhjieet Gupta (PSPB), scoring 8.5 points. While Petrosian finished runner-up, Magesh and Abhijeet occupied the third and fourth positions respectively, based on the tie break score. The trio were given Rs 80,000 each.
Among Orissa players, Swayams Mishra impressed most, finishing 12th with eight points. He caused an upset in the last round, outwitting Grandmaster S Arun Prasad. Swayams was followed by IMs Debashis Das (31st) and Swayangsu Satyapragyan (32nd) with seven points each.
Three players _ GA Stany, Aditya Udeshi and CH Mehar Chinna Reddy _ secured IM norms, while R Preethi obtained WIM norm. A total of Rs 13.84 lakhs was distributed among 150 players.
Orissa Sports Minister Badri Narayan Patra handed over the trophies in the closing function. KIIT founder Dr Achyuta Samanta, Chief Electoral Officer S Srinivasan, host All Orissa Chess Association president Sekhar Chandra Sahu and secretary Vivek Kumar Tibarewal were present on the occasion.
Altogether 220 players from seven countries joined the 11-round tournament. Among them there were 63 titled players including 14 GMs, two WGMs, 30 IMs and two WIMs.
Final standings (Top 20): 1. Aleksej Aleksandrov (Blr, 9), 2. Tigran L Petrosian (Arm, 8.5), 3. P Magesh Chandran (Ind, 8.5), 4. Abjijeet Gupta (Ind, 8.5), 5. Sahaj Grover (Ind, 8), 6. RR Laxman (Ind, 8), 7. Sergey Kasparov (Blr 8), 8. Tejas Bakre (Ind, 8), 9. Mikheil Mchedlishvili (Geo, 8), 10. Vikramaditya Kulkarni (Ind, 8), 11. PDS Girinath (Ind, 8), 12. Swayams Mishra (Ind, 8), 13. Alexandr Fier (Bra, 8), 14. MR Venkatesh (Ind, 7.5), 15. Saptarshi Roy (Ind, 7.5), 16. Ziaur Rahman (Ban, 7.5), 17. DP Singh (Ind,
7.5), 18. P Konguvel (Ind, 7.5), 19. MR Lalith Babu (Ind, 7.5), 20. Anup Deshmukh (Ind, 7.5).
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PHOTO: Aleksej Aleksandrov (R) receives the trophy after emerging champion in the Orissa Open International Chess Tournament in Bhubaneswar on June 6, 2011.
