Abhijeet Gupta Ties For First / Harika gets her first GM norm

By Arvind aaron

Woman Grand Master Dronavalli Harika of Guntur completed a Grand Master norm scoring six points from nine games in the Reykjavik Open that concluded at Iceland on March 3.

Former World Junior champion Abhijeet Gupta of Delhi tied for the first place and finished third in a strong field. Gupta, tied with Ivan Sokolov (Bih), Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr) and Hannes Stefansson (Isl) for the first place with 7/9 and finished third. Gupta scored at a rating performance of 2656. Sokolov of Bosnia and Herzegovina won this 104-player 9-round Swiss on tie-break.

Harika and Eesha started well and were in the GM norm race from the start. The Pune girl fell through in the end unable to win any of her last four games. Harika won four games, drew four and lost to Illya Nyzhnyk of Ukraine. Among the players Harika defeated were Grand Masters Yuri Shulman and Hilarp Persson.

Harika, rated 2471 played at 2607 to make this achievement. The highpoint for the Indians was Abhijeet Gupta defeating the champion Ivan Sokolov. Gupta had finished second in the Corus Chess Tournament Group C this January.

Final placings: 1-4. Ivan Sokolov (Bih), Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr), Abhijeet Gupta (Ind), Hannes Stefansson (Isl) 7/9 each; 5-9. Vladimir Baklan (Ukr), Cori Jorge (Peru), Alexey Dreev (Rus), Jaan Ehlvest (USA), Yuri Shulman (USA) 6.5 each; 10 D. Harika 6; 21 Eesha Karavade 5.5, 30 Tania Sachdev 5.5; 49 Sahaj Grover 4.5...104 players.


 

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