Abhishek Das in action

Ashwin makes another IM norm
By Bharat Singh - Spain

The boy is in top form and he displayed it yet again in the Benasque International Open chess tournament that concluded here. The star performer Ashwin scored his second consecutive International Master Norm by defeating GM Babaev Rashad of Azerbaijan in the final round. In fact that was an extension of the second norm as Ashwin had made with a round to spare. The Banglore-boy had earlier made his maiden GM norm in the Sort open.

 

Aswin in Action

This victory fetched Ashwin the best Junior Prize in the championship. He finished 11th in the main prize list.

Abhishek Das achieved his maiden nine game IM norm by defeating WIM Fandino Reyes Roquelina of Cuba. Abhishek had a wonderful performance of 2457 in the tournament and needed a win in the final round that he achieved after a fine endgame.
 

Aswin,Abhishek celebrates their IM norms with teanmate Arun Karthik with a cup of tea

Soumya Swaminathan, the National Junior Girls' Champion. made her second consecutive WIM norm in this tournament. She achieved her task by earning a creditable draw against the experienced Finland GM Heikki M J Westerinen.

Indian prize winners and coaches with spanish president and director of the tournament at benasque

Amongst other Indians in the fray, Abhijeet Gupta missed his final GM norm by a whisker. He had to win his final game, but he could only manage a draw in a superior position against GM Alexander Delchev of Bulgaria. However Abhijeet managed to finish 19th in the main prize list. Devangi Patankar and Sahaj Grover impressed by winning their respective rating category prizes. Two Indian Grandmasters R.B.Ramesh and Deepan Chakravarthy could not make it to the main list.

 

Down Load Final standings here

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Published : 17  July , 2007