Sasikiran wins title

Grandmaster Krishna Sasikiran was held to a draw in the final round but still managed to edge past GM Abhijit Kunte on better progressive scores to lift the third Parsvnath International Open Chess tournament in New Delhi on Monday.

Sasikiran, who needed just a draw in the final round to clinch the title today, went for an outright win in the final round against International Master Anton Filipov of Uzbekistan but had to settle for a truce after 67 moves and finish with nine points from the possible 11.

However, the top seed would have to share the Rs 1.5 lakh prize money with Kunte according to the money sharing formula decided before the start of the event.

In the final round, Kunte defeated Saptarshi Roy in 46 moves to join Sasikiran at the top of the list.

Enamul Hossain of Bangladesh, IM S Satyapragyan, Filipov, Dmitry Kayumov of Uzbekistan and K Ratnakaran followed with 8.5 each.

Knowing fully well that even a draw could fetch him the title, Sasikiran went for the kill in order to earn a few valuable rating points.

The 24-year-old had began the tournament at an ELO rating of 2657 and the draw in the final round meant that their would be no addition to his tally despite the title.

"I am concentrating more on ratings and not on titles," said a grim looking Sasikiran.

Kunte played a NeoGruntfeld opening and managed his pieces well from the beginning.

The seasonsed GM from Pune capitalised on Saptarshi's blunder in the middle game, which gave him a better queen side control.

Kunte, who now progressed through the queen side, after a few quick pawn exchanges claimed the game in 46 moves.

In other matches, GMs R B Ramesh, Alexander Fominyh of Russia, Dibyendu Barua and Kayumov of Uzbekistan registered wins in their final round matches at the Bapu Samaj Seva Kendra.

WIM-elect Mary Ann Gomes was declared the best women player and Abjihit Gupta was the best Under-16 player while Sahaj Grover was the best under-2000 rates player of Delhi and Sankalp Modwal was the best junior.