Kolkata: Fifth seed GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of Armenia emerged champion with 7.5 points in the SREI International Grandmaster Chess tournament here today.
In an intense battle, there was a five-way tie for the top spot with 7.5 points each and Ter-Sahakyan edged out IM Mihail Mozharov of Russia by half Bucholz tie-break points to bag the winners purse of Rs 2 lakh.
Three GM norms and three IM norms were achieved in the 10-round tournament. In the final round, Ter-Sahakyan went all out for an attack against second seed, the Russian GM Ivan Popov's king in a Sicilian defence.
Popov gave his queen to thwart Ter-Sahakyan's attack and had three pieces for the sacrificed queen, but accepted a draw on the 33rd move as his king was open in the centre and subject to perpetual checks.
Requiring half a point for a GM norm, 10th seed IM Mihkail Mozharov completed the formality to sign truce with GM Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia as he also finished runner-up. FM Tigran Petrosyan, who outplayed the Georgian GM Tornike Sanikidze to achieve his GM norm, was the find of the meet.
Indian IM Murali Karthikeyan also achieved his GM norm by getting the better of top seed GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly who capped a forgettable outing and was placed 30th in the final standings.
Standings (Top 10): 1 GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (ARM), 2 IM Mikhail Mozharov (RUS), 3 GM Levan Pantsulaia (GEO), 4 FM Tigran Petrosyan (ARM), 5 GM Azer Mirzoev (AZE; all 7.5 points), 6 GM Ivan Popov (RUS), 7 GM Valeriy Neverov (UKR), 8 IM Murali Karthikeyan (IND), 9 GM R R Laxman (IND) 10 IM Bahruz Rzayev (AZE, all 7 points).
Top Board Results: IM Mikhail Mozharov (7.5) drew GM Levan Pantsulaia (7.5); GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (7.5) drew GM Ivan Popov (7.5); GM Azer Mirzoev (7.5) b GM Vladislav Borovikov (6.5); GM Valeriy Neverov (7) drew IM Bharuz Rzayev (7); GM Tornike Sanikidze (6) lost to FM Tigran S Petrosyan (7.5); GM R R Laxman (7) b IM Jacek Stopa (6); Surya Sekhar Ganguly (5.5) lost to IM Murali Karthikeyan (7); GM Praveen Thipsay (5.5) lost to GM Deep Sengupta (6.5); GM Marat Dzhumaev (6) drew IM Bhuvanesh R Ramnath (6); GM Merab Gagunashvili (6.5) b IM Swayams Mishra (5.5); GM Levon Babujian (6) drew IM Prasanna Raghuram Rao (6); GM Hovik Hayrapetyan (6.5) bt N R Visakh (5.5); N R Vignesh (5.5) lost to GM Drazic Sinisa (6.5); V Kartik (5.5) lost to GM Neelotpal Das (6); IM Aditya Udeshi (6) b IM Prathamesh Sunil Mokal (5).
