Lalith Babu emerges champ

Indian Grandmaster Lalith Babu, with a better tie-break, edged out Grandmaster Lu Shanglei of China and emerged Champion after the 11th and final round in the Chennai Super Kings 5th International Grandmaster chess tournament 2013 at Media Hall, Nehru Stadium here on Wednesday.

Lalith Babu and Lu Shanglei logged in nine points from eleven rounds, ahead of GMs Adhiban Baskaran and Niaz Murshed. Also, Lalith Babu becomes the first Indian to emerge the champion in the five editions of Chennai Open held so far. Lalith Babu went through the event without any loss, winning seven and drawing four, while Lu Shanglei suffered a solitary loss to GM Adhiban Baskaran.

Lalith Babu takes home the winner’s prize of `2 lakh out of total prize money of `10 lakh sponsored by Chennai Super Kings. Chennai continues to be good hunting ground for Andhra Pradesh star Lalith Babu, who won the Commonwealth 2012 title here last year. Sharing the third spot were GMs Adhiban Baskaran (India) and Niaz Murshed (Bangladesh) at 8.5 points.

In the crucial final round, Lalith Babu outsmarted Grandmaster Elect Swapnil S Dhopade in 34 moves, while Chinese GM Lu Shanglei brought down second seeded Russian GM Deviatkin Andrei. The second board game between the other title contenders, Adhiban and Murshed ended in a draw.

K Shankar, shipping division president of the India Cements Limited, distributed the prizes. Present on the dais were Shri DV Sundar, Vice President, FIDE, International Arbiter S Paul Arokiaraj, Chief Arbiter and Shri B Murugavel, Vice President, Tamil Nadu State Chess Association.

Results (round 11): Andrei Deviatkin (Rus) 8 lost to Lu Shanglei (Chn) 9, Niaz Murshed (Ban) 8.5 drew with B Adhiban 8.5, M R Lalith Babu 9 bt Swapnil S Dhopade 8, R Ramnath Bhuvanesh 8 drew with Teske Henrik (Ger) 8, Wan Yunguo (Chn) 8 bt R A Pradeep Kumar 7.5, C Praveen Kumar 8 bt Aleksej Aleksandrov (Blr) 7, Swathi Ghate 7 lost to Kuderinov Kirill (Kaz) 8, Prasanna Raghuram Rao 8 bt P Lokesh 7, Padmini Rout 8 bt Kayumov Dmitry (Uzb) 7, Ziaur Rahman (Ban) 7.5 bt D P Singh 6.5, Matta Vinay Kumar 7 drew with Raset Ziatdinov (USA) 7.

Placing: 1-2 MR Lalith Babu, Lu Shanglei (China) 9, 3-4  B Adhiban, Niaz Murshed (Bangladesh) 8.5, 5-15 Teske Henrik (Germany), Swapnil S Dhopade, Andrei Deviatkin (Russia), Kuderinov Kirill (Kazakstan), P Shyam Nikil, Wan Yunguo (China), Prasanna Raghuram Rao, C Praveen Kumar, R Ramnath Bhuvanesh, Padmini Rout, R Siddharth 8, 16-20 S L Narayanan, Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan), B S Shivananda, Czebe Attila (Hungary), V R Aravindh Chithambaram 7 pts.