Final GM Norm For Gupta

By Arvind Aaron

International Master Abhijeet Gupta of Petroleum Sport Board, Rajasthan completed his third Grand Master norm when he scored 7.5/10 in the 12th Balaguer International Open that concluded at Spain on July 25.

Bay Area IM Vinay Bhat of USA and Alexander Delchev tied for first place with 8/10. Delchev of Bulgaria won the event on tie-break and for the second time in a row. Vinay Bhat obtained his third GM norm. The third place was shared by four players and Abhijeet Gupta was one of them. He started as the thirteenth seed. He had made his earlier norms at Andorra (2006), Delhi (2007) and this third norm will now make him a GM provided he reaches the 2500 rating mark. "Bhaiyo" as he is called also remained undefeated.

Tokyo born Ashwin Jayaram of Chennai played in three events at Spain and obtained three IM norms and should soon be listed as an International Master.

Arun Karthik of Tamil Nadu was impressive. Having a rating of 2329 he played at 2574 for a maiden GM norm. He faced six GMs, one IM, one FM and two untitled platers. One of the untitled players was Abhiban who has now qualified for the IM title. Arun Karthik had an IM norm from the Aeroflot Open. Arun Karthik defeated Adhiban his room-mate in the final round.

Abhishek Das did not get the same star studded opponents like Arun Karthik but managed to make an IM norm playing at a rating level of 2446. That was well above his 2321 rating.

Soumya Swaminathan started well (3.5/4) and fell back (0.5/4) in the second half when she started to face stronger opponents. He had an IM norm.

Padmini Rout of Orissa played a shade above her rating and got her Under-14 prize ahead of boys along with a WIM Norm.

The best Under-14 prize went to Padmini Rout and next was Sahaj Grover. The best Under-16 prize went to Adhiban. National Junior champion Abhijeet Gupta topped the best Under-20 section and behind him were Arun Karthik and Ashwin Jayaram.

Final placings: 1-2 Aleksander Delchev (Bul), Vinay Bhat (USA) 8/10, 3-6 GM Martine Arizendi (Esp), IM Abhijeet Gupta (Ind), GM Levan Aroshidze (Geo), GM Thomas Luther (Ger) 7.5 each, 7 R.Arun Karthik (Ind) 7, 12 Ashwin Jayaram (Ind) 7, 19 Abhishek Das (Ind) 6.5, 25 IM D.K.Sharma (Ind) 6.5, 29 B.Adhiban (Ind) 6, 36 Padmini Rout (Ind) 5.5, 43 WIM Kiran Mohanty (Ind) 5.5, 44 T.Purushothaman (Ind) 5.5 each, 50 WIM Kruttika Nadig (Ind) 5.5, 51 Devangi Patankar (Ind) 5.5, 54 Soumya Swaminathan (Ind) 5, 57 Sahaj Grover (Ind) 5, 62 L.Ishwarya Shobana (Ind) 5...125 players.

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Published on 27.07.2007