Abhijeet Gupta finishes fourth, Ashwin set be an IM after another remarkable show 

By Bharat Singh

International Master Abhijeet Gupta took a quick draw Levon Aroshidze of Ukraine in the final round and finished fourth in the Balaguer International open chess tournament after the 10 th and final round that concluded here.

Abhijeet, who made his final GM norm after the 9th round decided to play it safe and the game was over in quick time. 

Ashwin Jayaram yet again made his present e Banglore based youngster recorded another International Master norm after signing peace with German IM Mathias Roeder. Abhishek Das also made his second IM norm defeating Pedro March mascara in his final game of the tour. 

Ashwin who started the Spanish circuit as an untitled player was clearly the pick of the Indians as he recorded his maiden GM norm and two IM norms on the trot to qualify himself as the next International Master of the country. It is clear that he is working very hard and his decision to stay back in Europe for more tournaments might see him bringing more laurels for the country.

Meanwhile, at the top, Alexander Delchev of Bulgaria emerged as the winner of the tournament after beating GM Oleg Korneev of Russia. Delchev scored 8 points in all and tied for the first place with Vinay Bhat, an International Master of Indian origin who represents United States. By virtue of his excellent performance, Vinay also made his third and final Grandmaster norm. 

It turned out to be an excellent tournament for the Indians as apart from Abhishek, Ashwin and Abhijeet, Soumya Swaminathan made an IM norm while Padmini Rout made her Women International Master norm. 

Like Ashwin, Soumya started the tour as a untitled player but will return home a Women International Master with one Women Grandmaster norm and an IM norm to boot her. Based at Pune, Soumya is the reigning National Junior Girls champion. 

Final Indian standings with points in bracket: 

4. Abhijeet Gupta (7.5); 7. R Arun Karthik (7); 12. Ashwin Jayaram (7); 19. Abhishek Das ( 6.5); 25. Dinesh Kumar Sharma (6.5); 29. B Adhiban (6); 36. Padmini Rout (5.5); 43-44. Kiran Manisha Mohanty, T Purushothaman (5.5 each); 50-51. Kruttika Nadig, Devangi Patankar (5.5 each); 54. Soumya Swaminathan (5); 57. Sahaj Grover (5); 62. L Iswarya Shobana (5). 

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Published on 27.07.2007