Reaping the rewards for all the hard work done in winning the first seven rounds, Abhijeet Gupta stretched out his hand for a second successive friendly draw and became the first Indian to regain the Commonwealth chess title here on Tuesday.
The draw in the ninth and final round suited Arghyadip Das who took the second spot. Many expected Arghyadip to work harder for a win with white pieces but he chose to play it safe. The result gave Abhijeet a winning tally of eight points and the winner’s share of Rs. 1.50 lakh.
Among the women, National champion Padmini Rout topped a three-way tie for the title with the Subbaraman sisters — Vijayalakshmi and Meenakshi.
The results:Ninth round: Arghyadip Das (7.5) drew with Abhijeet Gupta (8); S. Ravi Teja (6.5) lost to M. R. Lalith Babu (7.5); G. Akash (6.5) lost to Deepan Chakkravarthy (7.5); Siva Mahadevan (6.5) lost to M. Karthikeyan (7); N. R. Vignesh (6) lost to Deep Sengupta (7); Aravindh Chithambaram (7) bt Nicholas van der Nat (RSA, 6); Ziaur Rahman (6.5) drew with N. Sanjay (6.5); Abhijit Kunte (6.5) drew with Sriram Jha (6.5); Ramnath Bhuvanesh (7) bt S. L. Narayanan (6); Ankit Rajpara (6.5) drew with S. Nitin (6.5); S. Vijayalakshmi (7) bt Niaz Murshed (Ban, 6); N. Lokesh (6) lost to Padmini Rout (7); Mohammad Minhazuddin (Ban, 7) bt S. Jayakumaar (6); Himanshu Sharma (5.5) lost to S. Meenakshi (7).
Final placings: Open: 1. Abhijeet Gupta (8), 2-3. Arghyadip Das and M. R. Lalith Babu (7.5 each).
Women: 1-3. Padmini Rout, S. Vijayalakshmi and S. Meenakshi (7 each).
Under-20 (Open): 1-2. M. Karthikeyan, Aravindh Chithambaram (7 each), 3. G. Akash (6.5). Girls: 1. P. Michelle Catherina (6), 2-3. R. Vaishali and P. V. Nandhidhaa (5.5 each).
Under-18 (Open): 1-3. N. R. Visakh, Siva Mahadeva and Kumar Gaurav (6.5 each). Girls: 1-2. Ivana Furtado, Srija Seshadri (5.5 each), 3. Pratyusha Bodda (5).
Seniors (over-60): 1. Rani Hamid (Ban, 5 points), 2. S. S. Dave (3.5), 3. Lim Kian Hwa (Mas, 3).
Under-16 (Open): 1. Sharang Kapoor (6.5), 2-3. Barath Kalyan and Kane Samvid (6 each). Girls: 1. Aakanksha Hagawane (6.5), 2. Sakshi Chitlange (6), 3. Saloni Sapale (5.5).
Under-14 (Open): 1. Mitrabha Guha (7), 2. Neelash Saha (6), 3. Rahul Srivatshav (5.5). Girls: 1. Stuti Bhanot (6.5), 2. Vantika Agrawal (6), 3. Harshita Guddanti (5.5).
Under-12 (Open): 1-2. Koustav Chatterjee, Aronya Ghosh (7 each), 3. Mohammad Fahad Rahman (Ban, 6). Girls: 1. Mrudul Dehankar (7), 2. Saina Salonika (6.5). 3. C. Lakshmi (5.5).
Under-10 (Open): 1. Raunak Sadhwani (7), 2. M. Sreeshwan (6), 3. Mahitosh Dey (5.5). Girls: 1. Divya Deshmukh (8), 2. Bhagyashree Patil (6.5), R. Rakshitta (6).
Under-8 (Open): 1-2. Shahil Dey, Garv Rai (6.5 each), 3. Tanmay Jain (5.5). Girls: 1. Prathivya Gupta (7), 2. Anishka Vikram (6.5), 3. Sanudula Dahamdi (Sri, 6).
