22-year old Chithambaram wins Chess tournament in Spain
By Bibhu Ray
(The Quiver) : Indian Grandmaster Aravidh Chithambaram emerged winner in the 41st Villa De Benasque International Chess Open after edging Armenia’s Robert Hovhannisyan and compatriot Raunak Sadhwani on the basis of tie-break score here.
Chithambaram,Hovhannisyan and Sadhwani finished on eight points from 10 rounds along with seven others. Chithambaram, former national champion, took the top prize on the basis of a superior tie-break score.
Sadhwani finished third place behind the America
Chithambaram started the event with four straight wins before settling for draws in the next two rounds. A defeat at the hands of Czech Republic GM Vojtech Plat in the eighth round came as the minor blip before the 22-year old Chithambaram finished strongly by posting wins in the last two rounds over Marcos Lianes Garcia (Spain) and Armenian GM Karen Movsziszian.
The 17-year old Sadhwani remained unbeaten through the 10 rounds, scoring six wins to go with four draws. An inferior tie-break score hurt his chances of claiming the top spot.
Chithambaram’s coach R B Ramesh praised his ward for the title.
“Congratulations to Aravindh Chithambaram for winning the Benasque Open 2022! Congratulations to @sadhwani2005 as well for joint first and coming third on tie break,” Ramesh tweeted.
