CHENNAI: Russian Grandmaster Maxim Turov with overall 9.5 points won the Chennai Open International Grandmaster Chess tournament on Wednesday.
Needing a draw in the final round, Turov had it easy against Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh. Rahman agreed for a second place when he accepted Turov's offer for a draw in 14 moves.
With the top board ending in a short draw, the focus was on the second board where International Master Lalith Babu had a chance of tying for the first place. His game against International Master Richard Bitoon of Philippines was a long drawn affair and a draw was finally agreed between the two when none could make any progress.
R Siddharth, the local youngster who secured a Grandmaster norm on Tuesday, scored yet another resounding win in the same round. International Master Ashwin Jayaram became his victim, who had earlier scalped two consecutive Grandmasters in the previous rounds.
With this win, Siddharth tied for the second spot with nine points along with Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman and M R Lalith Babu.
International Master Vikramaditya Kamble of Maharashtra defended very well in an inferior position against Grandmaster Pavel Kotsur and clinched a draw.
Final rankings:
GM Turov Maxim RUS 9.5;
GM Rahman Ziaur BAN 9;
Siddharth R IND 9;
IM Lalith Babu M R IND 9;
IM Kamble Vikramaditya IND 8.5;
GM Jumabayev Rinat KAZ 8.5;
IM Bitoon Richard PHI 8.5;
GM Sundararajan Kidambi IND 8.5;
IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman IND 8.5;
Anwesh Upadhyaya IND 8.
