Prague, March 8 (HS): Continuing India’s dominance in chess, Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram won the first major title of his career. He defeated many veteran players in the prestigious Prague Masters Chess Tournament and secured the first position.
25-year-old Aravindh from Tamil Nadu won the title with a total of six points after drawing against Turkey’s Gurel Ediz in the ninth and final round.
World number 8 R Praggnanandhaa finished joint second with five points in this tournament. He suffered defeat against Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri in the final round. China’s top seeded player Wei Yi and Giri also remained at five points with Praggnanandhaa.
In the final round, Aravindh used the Caro-Kann defense while playing with black pieces. His opponent Gurel Ediz chose the advanced variation of the King’s Pawn opening. However, soon he lost a pawn and the game became complicated.
Aravindh maintained composure and kept the situation under control. After repetition of several moves, both the players agreed on a draw.
Expressing his happiness after the victory, Aravindh Chithambaram said, I did not sleep well for the last two days. I was completely fine till the seventh round, but after getting the lead, I felt the pressure.
He thanked his coach Grandmaster RB Ramesh and termed his performance against Anish Giri as the best in this tournament.
On the other hand, Praggnanandhaa started aggressively against Anish Giri, but he did not get success. He adopted the King’s Indian Defense, but Giri with a brilliant strategy turned the game in his favor by taking a short pawn in place of a rook at a crucial moment and registered a win.
In other matches of the final round, the match between David Navara of Czech Republic and Sam Shankland of America was a draw. At the same time, Czech player Nguyen Thai Dai Van was forced to play a draw against Vincent Keymer of Germany despite coming close to victory.
In the Women’s Challengers category, India’s Divya Deshmukh made a strong comeback by defeating Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis of Greece. In this category, Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan and Jonas Buhk Bjerre of Denmark became joint winners with seven points.
Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar
