Ramesh finishes joint-fourth

Grandmaster R B Ramesh defeated compatriot teenager S P Sethuraman to finish joint-fourth after the ninth and final round in the Dubai International Open Chess championship on Tuesday.

There was an expected three-way tie at the top but Grandmaster Sergey Fedorchuk of Ukraine emerged champion on a better tie-break score than the Armenian duo of Gabriel Sargissian and Tigran Petrosian, who finished second and third respectively.

The three top finishers ended with seven points apiece while Ramesh was next among the set of 13 players having 6.5 points each and finished 11th after the tie was resolved in the US $40000 prize-money tournament.

At the top, Sargissian and Petrosian took a quick draw while Fedorchuk had to stay afloat against Darmen Sadvakasov of Kazakhstan for some time before the peace was finally signed.

International Masters Abhijeet Gupta, Vishal Sareen and S Satyapragyan also figured amongst the prize winners after they all won their respective final round games against lower rated opponents. All three ended with six points overall.

Among other Indians in the fray, double Grandmaster norm holder Parimarjan Negi lost his final round game against GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko of Ukraine and finished with 5.5 points.

After losing the first round of the event itself, an excellent comeback bid by Parimarjan was spoiled by Miroshnichenko in the final round. The Ukrainian also finished joint fourth on 6.5 points.

Kruttika Nadig could not hold a promising position against GM Faruk Bistrik of Bosnia and Herzegovina and went down.

Kruttika, who needed just a draw as white in her last round game to secure her maiden Women Grandmaster norm, had earlier seen her peace proposal rejected by the Bosnian GM.

Even though the WGM norm did not come her way, Kruttika still ended up gaining a few important rating points and was adjudged joint third amongst women along with WGM and former world under-18 girls' champion Aarthie Ramamswamy.

Both the Indians scored five points in all while the title for the best lady player was won by teenager Lara Stock of Croatia, who scored 5.5 points.

The final day turned out to be excellent for Ramesh as he won a chanceless game against Sethuraman, who secured his maiden International Master norm despite the loss against the senior Indian.

Playing white, Ramesh opted for a close Ruy Lopez and Sethuraman's preparation in this particular set up was found wanting as Ramesh got an early opening advantage that was nurtured quite well.

The middle game witnessed Ramesh winning Sethuraman's queen for two rooks and a handful of pawns and the remaining technicalities were just too easy.

After a dismal show in the just concluded National 'A' chess championship this was a fine turnaround by Ramesh.

Gupta defeated So Wesley in a keenly contested game while Satyapragyan got the better of Aarthie from a difficult situation in other important games involving Indians.

Important and Indian results final round (Indians unless specified):

Gabriel Sargissian (Arm, 7) drew with Tigran Petrosian (Arm, 7); Darmen Sadvakasov (Kaz, 6.5) drew with Sergey Fedorchuk (Ukr, 7); Tamaz Gelashvili (Geo, 6.5) drew with Zviad Izoria (Geo, 6.5); Merab Gagunashvili (Geo, 6.5) drew with Levan Pantsulaia (Geo, 6.5); Ashot Anastasian (Arm, 6.5) drew with Girogi Kacheishvili (Geo, 6.5); Evgenij Miroshnichenko (Ukr, 6.5) beat Parimarjan Negi (5.5); Ghaem Maghami Ehsan (Iri, 6) drew with Adly Ahmed (Egy, 6); Pavel Kotsur (Kaz, 6.5) beat Sergey Kayumov (Uzb, 5.5); Sergei Krivoshey (Ukr, 5.5) lost to Safarli Eltaj (Aze, 6.5); Rashad Babaev Rashad (Aze, 5.5) lost to Zurab Sturua (Geo, 6.5); R B Ramesh (6.5) beat S P Sethuraman (5.5); El Taher Fouad (Egy, 5.5) drew with M R Lalith Babu (5.5); Farid Abbasov (Aze, 6.5) beat Odeev Handszar (Tkm, 5.5); Oleg Kulicov (Rus, 5.5) lost to Valeriy Neverov (Ukr, 6); Mesgen Amanov (Tkm, 6) beat Taleb Moussa (Uae, 5); Abhijeet Gupta (6) beat So Wesley (5); Kruttika Madig (5) lost to Faruk Bistric (Bih, 6); S Satyapragyan (6) beat Aarthie Ramaswamy (5); Vishal Sareen (6) beat A M Soozankar (5); El Arousy Abdul Hameed (Egy, 5.5) beat Shatrughan Jha (4.5); Robin Stellwagen (4.5) drew with D Sai Srinivas (5.5); Lavasani Javad (Iri, 4.5) lost to O T Anilkumar (5.5); Saud Mohamed (4.5) drew with Prathamesh Mokal (4.5); Erik Teichmann (Eng, 5) beat Soumitra Majumdar (4); Gurpreet Pal Singh (4.5) drew with K Priyadharshan (4.5); Faisal Alsharhan (4) lost to G B Joshi (5); C N Vaidya (4) lost to Stojic Dusan (5); N Srinath (3.5) lost to Prasanna Rao (4.5); Omid Bashirinia (3.5) lost to Ramnath Bhuvanesh ( 4.5); Dhyani Dave (3.5) lost to Shantanu Lahiri (4.5); Laith Kasib (3.5) lost to Shiven Khosla (4.5); Navabi Shirin (Iri, 4) beat Sahaj Grover (5).

Final standings: 1-3: Fedorchuk, Sargissian, Petrosian 7 each; 4-16: Sadvakasov, Izoria, Kacheishvili, Miroshnichenko, Gelashvili, Pantsulaia, Gagunashvili, Ramesh, Eltaj, Sturua, Anastasian, Kotsur, Abbasov 6.5 each; 17-24: Ehsan, Ahmed, Amanov, Gupta, Satyapragyan, Sareen, Neverov, Bistric 6 each.