Panchanathan Mahesh Chandran became India's 12th Grandmaster when he tied for first place in the US $180,000 33rd World Open, in Philadelphia, the United States.

The 22-year-old Mahesh lost to Grandmaster Kamil Milton of Poland in the title play-off after tying for the top spot. He scored 7.5 points from the nine rounds in the 204-player event to obtain his third and final GM norm on Monday.

Mahesh, a student in the University of Texas in Dallas, got his first GM norm by winning the Asian Junior Championship in Sri Lanka [Images] in 2003 and completed his second norm at Bar in Serbia (formerly Yugoslavia) in March this year.

Mahesh's main strength in the event was his consistency in a star-studded field. His points came from excellent performances against strong players like Jaan Ehlvest (Est), Yuri Shulman (Isr) and Alexander Shabalov (USA).

His sole defeat came at the hands of Larry Christiansen (USA) and he drew with Alexander Onischuk (USA). He won his remaining games in the tournament.

India's other Grandmasters are: Viswanathan Anand [Images], Dibyendu Barua, Pravin Thipsay, Abhijit Kunte, Krishnan Sasikiran, S S Ganguly, Pendyala Harikrishna, Sandipan Chanda, Koneru Humpy, R B Ramesh and Tejas Bakre.

Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda, who also took part in the competition, had a memorable outing in the event as he shocked former World championship candidate Gata Kamsky of the United States in the final round to share the third spot with seven points.

National champion Surya Sekhar Ganguly shared the seventh place on 6.5 points.

The top and Indian placings: 1-2 Kamil Milton (USA), P. Mahesh Chandran (Ind) 7.5/9, 3-6 Sandipan Chanda (Ind), H. Nakamura, I. Ibragimov, V. Akobian (all USA) 7 each, 7-12 S.S. Ganguly 6.5, 13-39 Gata Kamsky (USA), Abhijit Kunte, Sundararajan Kidambi, M.R. Venkatesh 6 each, 40-55 Nisha Mohota 5.5, 56-81 Saptarshi Roy Choudhury 5, 82-109 Swati Ghate 4.5, 110-114 Bhagyashree Thipsay, Anupama Gokhale 4 each...204 players.

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