11 September,2009 11:53 AM IST | | IANS
Overnight leader Grand Master Le Quang Liem of Vietnam clinched the title with a drawn game against Indian International Master S Satyapragyan in the final round of the fourth Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess tournament on Thursday.
Unwilling to take chances, IM Satyapragyan exchanged pieces regularly to eventually force the draw by repetition of moves as Liem finished with eight points and was richer by Rs 3 lakh.
Satyapragyan (7) took the seventh position.
Top seeded GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (7.5) of Azerbaijan stamped his class on the latter part of the competition by winning a few games in a row. He defeated Czech GM and defending champion Viktor Laznicka (7) in another fine display of attacking chess to grab the second spot as the 10-day tourney at the Gorky Sadan came to an end.
In a Queens's gambit declined game Mamedyarov with the white pieces seemed to have got into an equal position but he sacrificed his knight and then pushed his connected passed pawns to clinch the issue. Laznicka was relegated to the sixth spot.
GM Anton Filippov (7.5) of Uzbekistan was also impressive in his win against GM Ni Hua (6) of China to clinch the third slot because he had an inferior progressive score to the top seed even though they had the same points.
Local GMs Surya Sekhar Ganguly (7) and Sandipan Chanda (7) also took a quick draw. Sandipan got the fourth place and Surya the eighth.
GM Nigel Short (7) of England scored a fine victory over Georgian GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili (6) after 26 moves. The Georgian tried the Caro-Kann defence and the Englishman opted for the advance variation. He soon started sacrificing pieces to open up the position because the Georgian's king was in the centre and soon the exposed king was in a mating net.
As many as three GM norms were made. RR Laxman became the country's 20th GM and Satyapragyan and Sahaj Grover earned their maiden GM norms.
As many as 10 players picked up IM norms.
