Ganguly Finishes Third In Biel Open

By Arvind Aaron

Former six-time Indian champion Surya Sekhar Ganguly of Kolkata finished third in the Biel Open Tournament that concluded at Biel in Switzerland on August 2, 2017.

The first-second places went to Mateusz Bartel of Poland and Vladimir Baklan of Ukraine. Both remained undefeated on 7/9 and also drew their mutual encounter.

Ganguly, 1983-born, played at 2676 and gained 3.2 Elo points. He lost one game to Grand Master Hera Imre of Hungary. Ganguly beat Vaibhav Suri and drew Karthikeyan Murali in clashes between Indians. Ganguly started as third seed and finished third.

Aravindh Chithambaram also scored 6.5 points and gained 8.4 Elo, remaining undefeated. He started as seed 14 and finished sixth place tying for the third place.

A dozen Indians who played in this event gained 213.80 Elo points. Our players are successful, or more hungry for success or they are under-rated by about 100 points.

Leading final placings and Indians: 1-2. GM Mateusz Bartel (Pol), GM Vladimir Baklan (Ukr) 7/9 each; 3-8. GM Surya S Ganguly (Ind), GM Davorin Kuljasevic (Cro), GM Salem A.R. Saleh (UAE), GM Aravindh Chithambaram (Ind), GM Mikhail Al. Antipov (Rus), GM Milos Perunovic (Srb) 6.5 each; 12 GM Karthikeyan Murali 6; 22 GM V Vishnu Prasanna 5.5; 25 GM Vaibhav Suri 5.5; 34 IM Swayams Mishra 5; 44 Kautil Kakamanu 5; 48 GM M.R. Venkatesh 4.5; 59 FM Dhanush Bharadwaj 4.5; 67 Sankalp Gupta 4; 71-72. FM Ashwani Tiwari, Vedant Goswami 4.