Abhijeet Gupta finishes second in Czech Open chess

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New Delhi, July 31: Commonwealth Champion Abhijeet Gupta came up with a spirited effort to beat Florian Kaczur of Hungary and finish second in the Czech International Open chess tournament at Pardubidze in Czech Republic.

After squandering his sole lead at 5.5/6, Gupta scored 1.5 points in the last three rounds to end with a tally of seven points out of a possible nine.

However, his superior tie-break rate helped him win second place after a four-way tie was resolved.

Gupta was beaten by fellow Indian Grandmaster G N Gopal in the seventh round. Twenty-five year old Jan Krejci of Czech Republic won seven games in a row after starting with two draws to win the title by a one point margin.

International Master Sayantan Das, 20, of Kolkata made a Grand Master norm by remaining undefeated in the Czech Open.

The 2399 rated player clocked a rating performance of 2609, gaining 25.5 Elo in the process. Nihal Sarin (born 2004) started as seed 43 and finished 13th scoring 6.5 points but missed the GM norm.

He suffered only one loss to Gopal. The other GM norm seeker, Abhimanyu Puranik remained undefeated but did not face the required GMs. FIDE Master Raunak Sadhwani (Elo 2314, born 2005) played at 2498 and completed an International Master norm.

Incredibly, the 12-year old from Nagpur also remained undefeated. He scored 3/5 against the five Grand Masters he faced. The other two IM norms were recorded by FM Nihal Sarin (6.5/9) and Harshit Raja (5.5/9).

Untitled Harshit Raja played at 2469 gaining a huge 26.80 rating points. Four draws against the five GMs he faced was the high point for 16-year old Raja. Nihal Sarin played at 2558, 42 short of a GM norm in performance rating. However, he made an inconsequential IM norm. The Kerala lad is known for his fast playing skills and already has a GM norm in the kitty.

PTI