Indians Take Top Four Placings In Hoogeveen Open!

Indians Take Top Four Placings In Hoogeveen Open!
By Arvind Aaron

Former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta played at a stunning 2697 rating level to win the Hoogeveen Open in the Netherlands on October 22, 2016.

Gupta from Bharat Petroleum, Delhi won by a half point margin scoring an undefeated 7.5/9. He faced three Indians, beating Nitin while drawing fellow GMs Lalith Babu and Sandipan Chanda.

The high point of this 81-player contest was the top four placings taken by the 13 Indians.

The second place went to Sandipan Chanda, Kolkata grandmaster who scored heavily against fellow Indian GMs, 2.5/3 in the end.

Vijaywada GM Lalith Babu who led with 6.5/7 suffered two defeats and still took the third place.

FM Rakesh Kumar Jena played at 2531 and made an IM norm on course. He started as seed 32 and finished eighth with six points from his nine games.

Final placings (tie-break order): 1 GM Abhijeet Gupta 7.5/9; 2 GM Sandipan Chanda 7; 3-7. GM M Lalith Babu, GM M Shyam Sundar, Lucas Van Foreest (Ned), GM Oleg Romanishin (Ukr), Casper Schoppen (Ned) 6.5 each; 8 FM Rakesh Kumar Jena 6; 10 IM S Nitin 6; 15 GM Debashis Das 5.5; 16 IM Eesha Karavade 5.5; 18 IM K Rathnakaran 5.5; 28 GM S Kidambi 5; 29 Dushvant Sharma 5; 38 Harsha Bharathakodi 4.5; 47 Vardan Nagpal 4.5….81 players.