Sandipan finished 11th

Pardubice: It turned out to be a barren outing for the Indians in the Czech International Open chess tournament, which concluded he-re on Sunday, with none of them managing to break even into the top ten positions.

The best show for the Indians was an 11th place finish by GM Sandipan Chanda, who won his last round game against IM Konstantin Shanava of Georgia, and a 13th place finish by IM S. Kidambi.

The duo had initially shared the sixth spot along with 20 others on 6.5 points but once the tie was resolved, it turned out that they did not have the best tie-breaks.

GM Andrei Kovalev of Belarus, one of the overnight leaders, emerged the clear winner with a finely crafted victory over GM Mikhailo Oleksienko of Ukraine.

The other two ? Russians Vladimir Potkin and Evgeny Najer ? had earlier drawn their games. Kovalev pocketed $3000 with a score of 7.5 points out of a possible 9.

Potkin, Najer, Sergey Azar-ov of Belarus and Alexander Kharitonov of Russia ended in joint second, with 7 points api-ece. The ninth and final round once again saw average performances from the 12-member Indian contingent as Kidambi did not try to test GM Daniel Fridman of Latvia.

Sandipan, meanwhile, played a fine game to beat Konstantin Shanava. Getting a small advantage in the opening, Sandipan sustained it to end up the winner.

IM S. Poobesh Anand remained the only undefeated Indian in the meet after successfully holding the higher-rated Sergei Zhigalko of Belarus who played black. (PTI)