Bhubaneswar: Orissa Grandmaster Debashis Das needed a win to emerge champion in his hometown tournament but could only finish with a draw GM Nguyen Duc Hoa of Vietnam in his final round match (Category A) at the KIIT International Chess Championships which concluded at the KIIT campus here Friday.
Starting with 7.5 points in comparison to the eight of Hoa, the Orissa player knew that nothing short of victory would help. However, the Vietnamese player with white pieces defended dourly and did not give Debashis the opening he was looking for. The draw enabled Hoa to bag the title with 8.5 points while Debashis had to be satisfied at second place with eight points.
West Bengal GM Diptayan Ghosh secured the third place with eight points after defeating GM Babujian Levon of Armenia in the final round.
Among other state players, Sidhant Mohapatra finished 15th with seven points while Padmini Rout finished 69th, having six points. Ansuman Samal was 33rd while Rajesh Nayak and Utkal Ranjan Sahoo were 46th and 47th respectively.
Saina tops women’s table
Saina Salonika emerged champion in the women’s category with six points while Padmini with the same number of points was third. In their last round matches Saina defeated Mohammed Fahad Rahman of Bangladesh while Padmini defeated Prasant N Nayagam. Saina finished the tournament with four wins, an identical number of draws and two defeats.
Soyamsree finishes 3rd
Soyamsree Mohanty of Orissa secured the third place with eight points from nine rounds in the C category. Two other state players, Sarthak Debata (fifth) and Aditya Anurakta Mohanty (seventh) finished in the top 10, with 7.5 points each.
PNN
