Tigran Petrosian of Armenia wins Grandmaster Chess Tournament.

Kolkata, Mar 7 (UNI) Grandmaster Tigran Petrosian of Armenia lifted the glittering trophy and the first prize of 4,500 dollars at the Kolkata open 2007 Grandmaster Chess Tournament which concluded here.

The Armenian Grandmaster, however, had to wait for the completion of the second board game between Darmen Sadvakasov of Kazakhstan and Alon Greenfield of Isreal to assure himself of the sole first prize.

The overnight leader Petrosian took a lightning 8-move draw against GM Dimitri Komarov of Ukraine on the top board in order to assure himself of at least a share of the top prize. After a four-hour=fight, he agreed to sign peace offered by Komarov on the 38th move in a sterile position.

Later commenting on his win, Petrosian said he liked the tournament very much and wanted to come back every year.''it was very strong, but the facilities extended to me were comparable to anywhere in the world,I hope to be back in the next edition,'' Petrosian said.

GM Serjei Tiviakov of the Neitherlands defeated GM A Bhijit Kunte in a fine positional game to tie for the second position with GM Darmen Sadvakasov Kunte trying the solid Berlin defence against the Ruy Lopez opening of the top seeded Dutch player, but he missed a tactics and his kingside pawn structure was shattered. Sadvakasov had to be content with the third place.

Among the Indian contenders, GM Surya Sckhar Ganguly won a long game against GM Mikheil Kekilidze of Georgia to finish a respectable seventh. It was a good result for the national champion considering his indifferent start.

UNI