Lalith Babu emerges Champion, Lu Shanglei takes runner-up spot

Indian Grandmaster Lalith Babu, with a better tie-break edged out Grandmaster Lu Shanglei of China and emerged Champion after the eleventh and final round in the Chennai Super Kings 5th International Grandmaster chess tournament 2013 at Media Hall, Nehru Stadium, Chennai here today.

Lalith Babu takes home the winner’s prize of Rs. 2,00,000 (Rupess Two Lakhs only) out of total prize money of Rs. 10,00,000 (Rupees Ten lakhs only) sponsored by Chennai Super Kings. Chennai continues to be good hunting ground for Andhra Pradesh star Lalith Babu who won the Commonwealth 2012 title here last year. Sharing the third spot were GMs Adhiban Baskaran (India) and Niaz Murshed (Bangladesh) at 8.5 points.In the crucial final round, Lalith Babu out smarted Grandmaster Elect Swapnil S Dhopade in 34 moves, while Chinese GM  Lu Shanglei brought down second seeded Russian GM Deviatkin Andrei. The second board game between the other title contenders, Adhiban and Murshed ended in a draw.

Final Placings (Indians unless specified) :

1-2 M R Lalith Babu, Lu Shanglei (China) 9, 3-4  B Adhiban, Niaz Murshed (Bangladesh) 8.5, 5-15 Teske Henrik (Germany), Swapnil S Dhopade, Andrei Deviatkin (Russia), Kuderinov Kirill (Kazakstan), P Shyam Nikil, Wan Yunguo (China), Prasanna Raghuram Rao, C Praveen Kumar, R Ramnath Bhuvanesh, Padmini Rout, R Siddharth 8, 16-20 S L Narayanan, Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan), B S Shivananda, Czebe Attila (Hungary), V R Aravindh Chithambaram 7 ptsRound 11 Results (Indians unless specified)

Andrei Deviatkin (Rus) 8 lost to Lu Shanglei (Chn) 9, Niaz Murshed (Ban) 8.5 drew with B Adhiban 8.5, M R Lalith Babu 9 bt Swapnil S Dhopade 8, R Ramnath Bhuvanesh 8 drew with Teske Henrik (Ger) 8, Wan Yunguo (Chn) 8 bt R A Pradeep Kumar 7.5, C Praveen Kumar 8 bt Aleksej Aleksandrov (Blr) 7, Swathi Ghate 7 lost to Kuderinov Kirill (Kaz) 8, Prasanna Raghuram Rao 8 bt P Lokesh 7, Padmini Rout 8 bt Kayumov Dmitry (Uzb) 7, Ziaur Rahman (Ban) 7.5 bt D P Singh 6.5, Matta Vinay Kumar 7 drew with Raset Ziatdinov (USA) 7