Bhubaneswar: GM Debashis Das of Odisha drew with GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan in the ninth and final round to finish a disappointing 15th place in the Abu Dhabi Masters chess tournament. The tournament ended Wednesday, but the results were only updated, Friday. Debashis ended on 6.5 points along with 10 others when the final rankings were revealed.
GM Daniil Dubov of Russia clinched the title while GM Anton Korobov of Ukraine took the second spot. Local favorite GM Saleh Salem had to be satisfied with a third-place finish. All three of them finished with 7.5 points but the rankings were done based on the basis of their tie-breaker scores.
Meanwhile, others from the state IM Padmini Rout and Sambit Panda didn’t impress with their overall performances in the tournament, but finished their campaigns on winning notes. Padmini (4.5 points) defeated WIM Mobina Alinasab of Iran while Sambit (three points) prevailed over FM Ian Thompson of England.
IM Sidhant Mohapatra (four points) of Odisha played out a draw against compatriot Nikhil Dixit in his last round game while Saina Salonika (3.5) got a walkover as her opponent Syrian Abdul Kader Rayes failed to turn up.
Sarif secures title
Suruddin Sarif emerged champion in the Ist Invitational Senior Citizen Chess Championship, which concluded Friday at Cuttack.
Sarif took the top honours with four points from five rounds. Kamalakant Bisoi and Santosh Kumar Prusty garnered 3.5 points each, but they had to be satisfied with the second and third place finish respectively on the basis of tie-breaker scores. Chaitanya Rout secured the fourth position while Sudhir Mohanty stood fifth.
Veteran international marathon runner Vivekananda Tripathy joined as the chief guest and distributed prizes.