Adhiban best Indian in Qatar Masters, Yangyi wins title

DOHA: Grandmaster B Adhiban emerged as the best performing Indian and finished among the prizes after drawing the final-round game with Ding Liren of China in the Qatar Masters International chess tournament that concluded here.
Starting with two losses in the tournament, Adhiban finished on six points and all his points were made in the last seven games. The final draw helped Adhiban finish tied seventh but due to early losses the Indian had the worst tie break among those who scored six points and finished 24th overall.
Yu Yangyi of China won the strongest ever open tournament with a scintillating victory over former world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia in the final round game. After beating top seed Anish Giri of Holland in the penultimate round, Yangyi proved himself a worthy winner of $25000 winner's cheque beating Kramnik in a game that will be remembered a long time.
Giri put aside his loss in the penultimate round and defeated Vladimir Akopian of Armenia to tie for the second spot along with Kramnik on seven points. With his better tie break, Giri finished second while Kramnik had to be content with the third place.
Sjugirov Sanan of Russia, Vasif Durarbayli of Azerbaijan and Zahar Efimenko of Ukraine tied for the fourth spot on 6.5 points and then it was a long list from the 7-24 position.
Having done quite well till towards the end, Grandmaster P Harikrishna ran out of steam and drew with Daniel Naroditsky of United States in his final round game to finish on 5.5 points.
Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta also could not force matters and had to be satisfied with five points after showing a lot of promise following three draws against much higher ranked opposition. Gupta ended his stint drawing with International Master Bogdan Belyakov of Russia who made a Grandmaster norm here.
Among other Indians in the fray, S Kidambi stood out towards the end and scored 5.5 points after accounting for talented Russian Daniil Dubov in the final round. Kidambi in fact won the last three rounds and stands to gain valuable rating points from the tournament.
Grandmasters Sandipan Chanda and M Shyam Sundar were among those who ended on five points.
With 92 Grandmasters in the fray out of 154 participants and many players from the elite club, the Qatar Open was certainly the strongest open in the world. And the organisers have promised an encore of this event sometime next year to which the chess buffs will eagerly look forward to.
The scene now shifts to London, where the London Classic is starting from Saturday.
Indian ace Viswanathan Anand will again be present here, first fighting it out in the rapid competition and then in a six player tournament. Lots of players from the Qatar Masters are also moving to London including Kramnik and Giri.
Important and Indian results final round (Indians unless specified): Yu Yangyi (Chn, 7.5) beat Vladimira Kramnik (Rus, 7); Vladimir Akopian (Arm, 6) lost to Anish Giri (Ned, 7); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 6) drew with Zahar Efimenko (Ukr, 6.5); Ding Liren (Chn, (6) drew with B Adhiban (6); Daniel Naroditsky (Usa, 5.5) drew with P Harikrishna (5.5); Rauf Mamedov (Aze, 5.5) beat G N Gopal (4.5); Bogdan Belyakov (Rus, 5) drew with Abhijeet Gupta (5); S Kidambi (5.5) beat Daniil Dubov (Rus, 4.5); Sergey Fedorchuk (Ukr, 4) lost to Debashis Das (5); Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr, 5) beat Aravindh Chithambaram (4); M Shyam Sundar (5) beat Mikheil Mchedlishvili (Geo, 4); Alexander Ipatov (Tur, 4.5) drew with Neelotpal Das (4.5); Sandipan Chanda (5) beat Nezad Husein Aziz (Qat, 4); Wen Yang (Chn, 5) beat Shardul Gagare (4); Zhao Jun (Chn, 5) beat P Konguvel (4); Xu Yinglun (Chn, 5) beat Surya Shekhar Ganguly (4); Viktor Bologan (4) drew with Sayantan Das (4); M S Thejkumar (4.5) beat Sebastian Bogner (Sui, 3.5); Aleksandar Indjic (Srb, 4.5) beat Rishi Sardana (3.5); D Harika (4) drew with Sameer Kathmale (4); M Karthikeyan (4.5) beat S Vijayalakshmi (3.5); Zeinab Mamedjarova (Aze, 4.5) beat Ankit Rajpara (3.5); Mary Ann Gomes (4) beat Gu Xiaobing (Chn, 3).