Georgian GM Pantsulaia wins Delhi International Chess

New Delhi (16 Jan 19) :-Third seed Grandmaster Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia won the 17th Delhi International Chess tournament 2019 after settling for a quick draw with Grandmaster S.L Narayanan in the 10th and final round that concluded here.

It was a seven way tie at the top between Levan Pantsulaia (Georgia), Mosadeghpour Masoud (Iran), Stupak Kirill (Belarus), Amonatov Farrukh (Tajikistan), Diptayan Ghosh, Abhijeet Gupta, and Narayanan.S.L on eight points apiece in the event but Levan was declared the winner based on his better tiebreak.

While Levan got richer by Rs. 6,00,000/- , Mosadeghpour Masoud got Rs. 5,00,000/- and Stupak Kirill took Rs. 4,00,000/- from the total kitty of over one crore one lakh prize money split over three categories.

There were norms galore at the tournament. International Masters Gukesh D and Visakh NR secured GM norms while Aditya Mittal, Saurabh Ananad, Bharat Kumar Reddy and Neelash Saha scored IM Norms respectively. Bommini Mounika Akshaya of Andhra Pradesh scored a Women’s International Master norm from her performance here. Mounika beat Kamdar Udit in her final round game.

Meanwhile in the ‘C’ group, Bir Kumar of Bihar won the first prize. Scoring 9.5 points out of a possible ten, Bir Kumar stayed a half point ahead of Nischay Sharma of Madhya Pradesh and Rishi R of Tamil Nadu who both tied for the second spot on nine points but the former was declared the runners up based on his better tiebreak.

Final Standings

Photos: David Llada/ Delhi Chess Association