Aravindh Chithambaram wins Chennai GM Open 2013

Aravindh Chithambaram wins Chennai GM Open 2013
By R.R.Vasudevan

14-year-old FIDE Master V R Aravindh Chithambaram emerged the champion with a whopping 9/11 after the final round of the Chennai Grandmaster International Open Chess tournament held in celebration of the FIDE World Championship Match 2013 at Nehru Stadium, Chennai here today. Aravindh, for his spectacular performance, takes the winner’s trophy and the cash award of Rupees 200000 (Rupees Two Lakhs only)

Grandmasters Neverov Valeriy (Ukraine) and S P Sethuraman (India) shared the second spot with 8.5 points. Further half a point down at 8 points were GMs Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, V Vishnu Prasanna (both India) and Borovikov Vladislav (Ukraine). Borovikov, incidentally, swept off his final round Indian opponent, GM Lalith Babu, with a bolt-from-the-blue queen sacrifice.

Aravindh Chithambaram who already has National titles in Under 11, 13 & 19 titles under his belt, is also an Under-14 silver medalist from World Youth Chess Championship 2012 at Slovenia. His ELO 2728 performance rating here fetches 80 ELOs taking him past 2400 mark.

Earlier, 15-year-old Chennai boy B Kumaran made a eleven game International Master Norm, bringing the Norms tally (2 GM Norms, 6 IM Norms, 1 WIM Norm) here to nine.

This GM event, sponsored by the Government of Tamil Nadu, carries a total prize fund of Rupees Ten lakhs, including cash awards for top 35 players and cash prizes for various categories.

GM Lalith Babu M R – GM Borovikov Vladislav

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.c5 g6 6.g3 Bg7 7.Bg2 O-O 8.O-O Nbd7 9.Qb3 Re8 10.Rd1 h6 11.Na4 Ne4 12.Be3 f5 13.Ne5 Nxe5 14.dxe5 Bxe5 15.Nb6 Rb8 16.f3 Nf6 17.Bxh6 e6 18.Bg5 Qe7 19.Na4 Qg7 20.Rac1 Nh7 21.Be3 Bf6 22.Bf2 e5 23.e4 Be6 24.exd5 cxd5 25.Nb6 d4 26.Qa4 Qc7 27.b4 Rbd8 28.Rc2 Ng5 29.Rcd2 Kg7 30.Re1 Bf7 31.Qd1 Rh8 32.h4 Ne6 33.Nc4 b5 34.Nb2 Rhe8 35.Nd3 Rd7 36.Rde2 Nd8 37.g4 Kg8 38.Qc2 Rde7 39.Nb2 Be6 40.a3 Nc6 41.h5 Bc8 42.hxg6 e4 43.fxe4 fxg4 44.Rf1 Kg7 45.Nd3 Rh8 46.e5 Nxe5 47.Bg3 Nf3 48.Kf2 Qxg3 0-1

Final Placings : 1 V R Aravindh Chithambaram (India) 9, 2-3 Neverov Valeriy (Ukr), S P Sethuraman (Ind) 8.5, 4-6 Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, V Vishnu Prasanna (both India), Borovikov Vladislav (Ukr) 8, 7-8 Mozharov Mikhail (Rus), Babujian Levon (Arm) 7.5, 9-10 M R Lalith Babu (Ind), Mirzoev Azer (Aze) 7 pts