Barua played out a quick draw in final round

Jamshedpur: Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua won the Tata International Open chess tournament here on Monday after a quick draw with GM Saidali Iuldashev of Uzbekistan in the 11th and final round.

Barua and GM Alexander Fominyh of Russia finished on nine points, but Barua won courtesy a better progressive score.

After a three-way tie for the third place, Iuldashev clinched the spot with the best tiebreak score. Sergei Ovsejevitsch of Ukraine finished fourth.

Deep Sengupta caused another upset beating Uzbek GM Marat Dzhumaev to finish fifth. It also helped Deep get the second IM norm in the process.

Six players — Pentyala Harikrishna, Abhijit Kunte, Ziaur Rahman, Dmitry Svetushkin, Tahir Vakhidov and R. B. Ramesh were tied for sixth to 11th places.

The final round was not devoid of excitement except on the top board where Barua and Iuldashev played only for a couple of minutes.

Fominyh had to use all his experience against Grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly, who missed out on some promising continuations in the middle game arising out of a Sicilian Defence.

Playing black, Fominyh’s king was stranded in the centre and only timely exchanges by the Russian enabled him to neutralise white’s advantage. In the ensuing endgame, Surya was gradually outplayed.

Deep was very lucky against Dzhumaev, who showed his class in the middle game to set up a winning position. However, Deep hung on playing the precise defensive moves and Dzhumaev finally succumbed under time pressure.

STANDINGS

Dibyendu Barua, Alexander Forminyh, Saidali Iuldashev, Sergei Ovsejevitsch, Deep Sengupta, Pentyala Harikrishna, Abhijit Kunte, Ziaur Rahman, Dmitry Svetushkin, Tahir Vakhidov, R. B. Ramesh.