India sweeps Podium at Port Elizabeth

Indians swept the podium in the Commonwealth Chess Championship that concluded at The Boardwalk Hotel, Port Elizabeth in South Africa on July 14, 2013.

Former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta of Delhi won the Commonwealth Championship with nine points from eleven games. He remained undefeated. Players outside the Commonwealth, Fedorchuk and Tiviakov took the second and third place in the Open event.

So, two players from India, Dibyendu Barua of Kolkata and M.R.Lalith Babu of Vijayawada took the silver and bronze medals. Barua was leading with 8/9 but a penultimate round defeat to Fedorchuk pushed him out of title contention.

Indian national champion G Akash of Chennai was the only untitled player in the top 10 bagging the Commonwealth Junior title on 8.5/11.

IA Gunther van den Bergh of South Africa was the chief arbiter. The event ran from July 6-14, 2013.

In the main section, a total of 314 players from 17 nations took part. Of that India were the second biggest group. South Africa has 248 players, followed by India 19 and Botswana 15 and Zambia 8, etc. Besides this, they also had a “B” section and a Blitz section.

Final placings (tie-break order): 1-3. GM Abhijeet Gupta (Ind), GM Sergey Fedorchuk (Ukr), GM Sergei Tiviakov (Ned) 9/11 each; 4-10. GM Dibyendu Barua (Ind), GM M.R. Lalith Babu (Ind), GM Vladislav Tkachiev (Fra), G. Akash (Ind), IM Jovanka Houska (Eng), WGM Soumya Swaminathan (Ind), IM Elijah Emojog (Uga) 8.5 each…314 players.

Final Standings