Pantsulaia emerges Chennai Open 2019 Champion

6 years ago

GM Pantsulaia Levan (Georgia) with 8.5 points emerged the Champion after the tenth and final round in the 11th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Chess tournament 2019 for Sakthi Group Dr N Mahalingam Trophy at Novotel IBIS OMR Hotel, Sholinganallur, Chennai today.

In the crucial final round, Pantsulaia drew with top seed GM Predke Alexandr of Russia, moving to 8.5 points. The draw propelled the Georgian to clear first. This follows Pantsulaia’s title triumph at Delhi Open last fortnight, giving him back-to-back titles, a great start for 2019. The Georgian would take home the winner’s cheque of Rs. 3,00,000 (Rupees Three lakhs only) along with the glittering Sakthi Group Dr N Mahalingam Trophy.

Sharing the second spot with 8.0 points were five Grandmasters viz., Popov Ivan (Russia), Aleksandrov Aleksej (Belarus), Paichadze Luka (Georgia), Megaranto Susanto (Indonesia) and Rozum Ivan (Russia). The top seeds had their say in the final round, as all the decisive games in the top ten boards went in favor of the higher rated player.

The 15 lakh prize money tournament came to a glittering end, as the trophies and cash prizes were handed over to he winners’ by the Chief Guest International Master Manuel Aaron. Present in the dais were Shri D V Sundar, Vice President, FIDE, Shri Stephen Balasamy P, Gen. Secretary, Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, International Arbiter R Anantharam and Chief Arbiter Manjunatha M.

Final Ranking

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.
1	2	GM	Pantsulaia Levan	GEO	2597	8,5
2	4	GM	Popov Ivan	RUS	2588	8,0
3	6	GM	Aleksandrov Aleksej	BLR	2582	8,0
4	5	GM	Paichadze Luka	GEO	2583	8,0
5	11	GM	Megaranto Susanto	INA	2530	8,0
6	3	GM	Rozum Ivan	RUS	2589	8,0
7	20	GM	Lugovskoy Maxim	RUS	2445	7,5
8	12	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	IND	2515	7,5
9	1	GM	Predke Alexandr	RUS	2620	7,5
10	28	IM	Girish A. Koushik	IND	2411	7,5
11	15	IM	Vignesh N R	IND	2461	7,5
12	10	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	VIE	2541	7,5
13	26	GM	Czebe Attila	HUN	2418	7,5
14	16	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	TJK	2455	7,5
15	18	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	VIE	2450	7,0
16	9	GM	Stupak Kirill	BLR	2542	7,0
17	36	IM	Tran Minh Thang	VIE	2355	7,0
18	37	IM	Saravanan V.	IND	2318	7,0
19	72		Pranesh M	IND	2125	7,0
20	27	GM	Manik Mikulas	SVK	2413	7,0
21	8	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	IND	2543	7,0
22	30	IM	Muthaiah Al	IND	2406	7,0
23	25	GM	Neelotpal Das	IND	2419	7,0
24	24	GM	Laxman R.R.	IND	2421	7,0
25	14	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	RUS	2461	7,0
26	43	WGM	Babiy Olga	UKR	2275	7,0
27	34	IM	Padmini Rout	IND	2365	7,0
28	29	IM	Rajesh V A V	IND	2410	7,0
29	91		Barath Kalyan M	IND	2004	7,0
30	46	FM	Gajwa Ankit	IND	2263	7,0