Indian Grandmaster Lalith Babu, with a better tie-break edged out Grandmaster Lu Shanglei of China and emerged Champion after the eleventh and final round in the Chennai Super Kings 5th International Grandmaster chess tournament 2013 at Media Hall, Nehru Stadium, Chennai here today.
Lalith Babu and Lu Shanglei logged in 9.0 points from eleven rounds, ahead of GMs Adhiban Baskaran and Niaz Murshed. Also, Lalith Babu becomes the first Indian to emerge the Champion in the five editions of Chennai Open held so far.
Lalith Babu went through the event without any loss, winning seven and drawing four, while Lu Shanglei suffered a solitary loss to GM Adhiban Baskaran.
Grandmaster Lalith Babu with the Champion's trophy
Lalith Babu takes home the winner’s prize of Rs. 2,00,000 (Rupess Two Lakhs only) out of total prize money of Rs. 10,00,000 (Rupees Ten lakhs only) sponsored by Chennai Super Kings.
Chennai continues to be good hunting ground for Andhra Pradesh star Lalith Babu who won the Commonwealth 2012 title here last year. Sharing the third spot were GMs Adhiban Baskaran (India) and Niaz Murshed (Bangladesh) at 8.5 points.
In the crucial final round, Lalith Babu outsmarted Grandmaster Elect Swapnil S Dhopade in 34 moves, while Chinese GM Lu Shanglei brought down second seeded Russian GM Deviatkin Andrei. The second board game between the other title contenders, Adhiban and Murshed ended in a draw.
Shri K Shankar, President, Shipping Division, India Cements Ltd distributed the prizes. Present on the dais were Shri D V Sundar, Vice President, FIDE, International Arbiter S Paul Arokiaraj, Chief Arbiter and Shri B Murugavel, Vice President, Tamil Nadu State Chess Association.
Shri K Shankar, Shri D V Sundar, Shri B Murugavel, Grandmaster M R Lalith Babu
GM Andrei Deviatkin – GM Lu Shanglei
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.c3 Nf6 4.h3 Nc6 5.Bd3 d5 6.e5 Nd7 7.Bb5 Qb6 8.Na3 e6 9.d3 a6 10.Bxc6 Qxc6 11.O-O b6 12.Nc2 Be7 13.Re1 Qc7 14.d4 h6 15.c4 dxc4 16.d5 exd5 17.Ne3 d4 18.Nf5 Nb8 19.e6 Bf6 20.N3h4 Bxe6 21.Qf3 Qc6 22.Qg3 g5 23.Nd6 Kd7 24.Ne4 Be7 25.Nf3 f6 26.Bf4 Bf5 27.Nxf6 Bxf6 28.Ne5 Bxe5 29.Rxe5 Be6 30.Rae1 Re8 31.Bd2 Qd6 32.Qf3 Nc6 33.R5e2 d3 34.Re3 Nd4 35.Qb7 Qc7 36.Qe4 Qc6 37.Qg6 Re7 38.b3 Ne2 39.R1xe2 dxe2 40.Qxh6 Rae8 41.Rxe2 Bf5 42.Rxe7 Rxe7 43.Qxg5 Qg6 44.Qh4 Rg7 45.g4 Bxg4 0-1
GM M R Lalith Babu – IM Swapnil S Dhopade
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nf3 cxd4 4.Nxd4 b6 5.Nc3 Bb7 6.f3 d6 7.e4 a6 8.Be3 e6 9.Be2 Nbd7 10.a4 Be7 11.a5 O-O 12.O-O Qc7 13.Nb3 Rab8 14.Qd2 bxa5 15.Nxa5 Ba8 16.Rfc1 Ne5 17.Na4 Nc6 18.Nxc6 Bxc6 19.b4 Qb7 20.Rcb1 Rfd8 21.Nb6 d5 22.exd5 exd5 23.c5 d4 24.Bxd4 Bb5 25.Bxb5 axb5 26.Qc3 Qc6 27.Re1 Rb7 28.Rad1 Ne8 29.Be5 h6 30.Qe3 Bg5 31.Qb3 Bh4 32.Bg3 Bg5 33.Rxd8 Bxd8 34.Qd5 1-0
R R Vasudevan
Press Officer
CSK 5th International Grandmaster chess tournament 2013
Final Ranking:
1 GM Lalith Babu M.R. 2541 IND – 9
2 GM Lu Shanglei 2526 CHN – 9
3 GM Adhiban B. 2558 IND – 8½
4 GM Murshed Niaz 2476 BAN – 8½
5 GM Teske Henrik 2512 GER – 8
6 IM Swapnil S. Dhopade 2474 IND – 8
7 GM Deviatkin Andrei 2569 RUS – 8
8 IM Kuderinov Kirill 2432 KAZ – 8
9 IM Shyam Nikil P. 2411 IND – 8
10 Wan Yunguo 2497 CHN – 8
11 IM Prasanna Raghuram Rao 2419 IND – 8
12 IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh.R 2339 IND – 8
13 WGM Padmini Rout 2288 IND – 8
14 IM Ravichandran Siddharth 2372 IND – 8
15 Narayanan.S.L 2397 IND – 7½
16 GM Dzhumaev Marat 2554 UZB – 7½
17 GM Czebe Attila 2494 HUN – 7½
18 IM Prakash G B 2266 IND – 7½
19 GM Rahman Ziaur 2526 BAN – 7½
20 Pradeep Kumar R.A. 2264 IND – 7½
21 Phoobalan P. 2328 IND – 7½
22 Kathmale Sameer 2334 IND – 7½
23 IM Murali Krishnan B.T. 2320 IND – 7½
24 Arun Karthik R. 2303 IND – 7½
25 GM Aleksandrov Aleksej 2607 BLR – 7
26 Matta Vinay Kumar 2182 IND – 7
27 GM Kayumov Dmitry D 2415 UZB – 7
28 Karthikeyan Murali 2352 IND – 7
29 Vignesh Nr 2188 IND – 7
30 Lakshmi Narayanan Mv 2123 IND – 7
31 Lokesh P. 2198 IND – 7
32 GM Ziatdinov Raset 2354 USA – 7
33 FM Maheswaran P. 2276 IND – 7
34 IM Ramnathan Balasubramaniam 2260 IND – 7
35 Prasannaa.S 2113 IND – 7 etc
