Chennai: Top seed Russian Grandmaster Boris Savchenko (8.5) edged out International Master Nitin Senthilvel of India with a superior tie-break score to emerge the champion after the tenth round of the 13th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Chess Tournament 2022 for the Sakthi Group Dr. Mahalingam Trophy here on Sunday.
Tournament leader Nitin accepted an early draw offer from GM Alexei Federov of Belarus and finished with 8.5 points. The top board draw gave Savchenko an opportunity to catch up with Nitin, which the Russian promptly did, scoring a hard-fought win over IM Aronyak Ghosh.
Savchenko received the glittering Chennai Open trophy and a cash award of Rs. 3,00,000 while the runner-up Nitin was richer by Rs. 2,00,000.
The total purse of Rs. 15,00,000, spread over 55 cash prizes, was distributed by chief guest Dr. M. Manickam, president, Tamil Nadu State Chess Association.
The results (Indians unless specified):
Alexei Fedorov (Bel, 8) drew with S. Nitin (8.5); Boris Savchenko (Rus, 8.5) bt Aronyak Ghosh (7.5); L.R. Srihari (8) bt Himal Gusain (7.5); Siddharth Ravichandran (7.5) drew with Van Huy Nguyen (Vie, 7.5); J. Deepan Chakkravarthy (7.5) bt V.A.V. Rajesh (7); Kirill Stupak (Bel) 7.5 bt M. Kunal (6.5); Jubin Jimmy (7) drew with Ajay Karthikeyan (7); P. Saravana Krishnan (6.5) lost to R.R. Laxman (7.5); S. Prasannaa (6.5) lost to Duc Hoa Nguyen (Vie) 7.5; N.B. Hari Madhavan (7.5) bt Vahe Baghdasaryan (Arm) 6.5; B. Vignesh (6.5) lost to P. Karthikeyan (7.5); Daakshin Arun (7) drew with Konguvel Ponnuswamy (7).
Final placings (Indians unless specified):
1-2 Boris Savchenko (Rus), S. Nitin 8.5; 3-4. Alexei Fedorov (Bel), L.R. Srihari 8; 5-14 Kirill Stupak (Bel), Siddharth Ravichandran, Aronyak Ghosh, J. Deepan Chakkravarthy, Duc Hoa Nguyen (Vie), Himal Gusain, Van Huy Nguyen (Vie), N.B. Hari Madhavan, P. Karthikeyan, R.R. Laxman 7.5.
