True to expectations, defending champion Nigel Short retained his Commonwealth chess crown, overcoming the final hurdle with ease.
Harika tops among women
MUMBAI: True to expectations, defending champion Nigel Short retained his Commonwealth chess crown, overcoming the final hurdle with ease to finish with nine points from the 10-round event, which concluded here on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Dronavalli Harika finished on top among the women with seven points. The Andhra Pradesh lass, who recently won the World Championship, signed off on a triumphant note beating Grandmaster Wu Shaobin of Singapore. It was her maiden Commonwealth women’s crown.
England’s Short scored a resounding victory over Surya Sekhar Ganguly in the final round to seal the title for the second year running. “It’s always nice to finish on a triumphant note. I could have settled for a draw, but I wanted to sign off on a winning note,” said Short after the 33-move victory.
Exchange blunders have always been a main drawback for Ganguly, and the final round was no different. “I will have to work on it,” said Ganguly, who finished seventh overall.
MR Venkatesh and Sandipan Chanda finished joint second but the latter, with a better progressive score, was declared the runner-up. Deepan Chakravarthy, Abhijit Kunte and Neelotpal Das finished tied for the third place.
Results
SS Ganguly 7 lost to Nigel Short (England) 9; MR Venkatesh 8 drew with Sandipan Chanda 8; Deepan Chakravarthy 7.5 drew with Abhijit Kunte 7.5; Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman 6.5 lost to Neelotpal Das 7.5; GB Prakash 7 drew with Himanshu Sharma 7; Eesha Karavade 6.5 lost to Ziaur Rahman 7; G Rohit 7 bt Praveen Thipsay 6; Abhijeet Gupta 7 bt Sriram Jha 6; Dronavalli Harika 7 bt Wu Shaobin 6; Dibyendu Barua 6.5 drew with Tania Sachidev 6.5; Murshed Niaz (Bangladesh) 6 lost to Sethuraman SP 7; Shyam Nikil 6 lost to Sundararajan Kidambi 7; Saptarshi Roy Choudhury 6.5 drew with Arghyadip Das 6.5; Lalith Babu 6 lost to Saptarshi Roy 7; Aarthie Ramaswamy 6 lost to GN Gopal 7
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