Commonwealth champion Nigel Short of England claimed his second straight title of the year at the Gibeltelecom Masters International Open Chess tournament, which concluded in Gibraltar on Friday.
He finished a half point clear of GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly after a comprehensive victory over GM Ernesto Inarkiev of Russia in the last round and tallied eight points out of a possible 10.
International Master Tejas Bakre, however, finished the tournament on a good note, achieving his third and final Grandmaster norm defeating Grandmaster Aleksander Poluljahov of Russia in the tenth and final round.
Ganguly drew with compatriot GM Pendyala Harikrishna and there was no one to catch him on 7.5 points after second seed GM Alexei Dreev was held to a draw by Murray Chandler of England in the last round.
Short went home richer by 4000 euros after a slow start in the tournament while Ganguly got 2500 euros for his efforts.
Harikrishna was a joint third with seven points alongside Dreev and GM Peter Wells of England, who scored over Dibyendu Barua in his last game. All three received 700 Euros.
Tejas needed a full point for his final norm. Now he just needs to touch the 2500 Elo rating to be formally crowned a Grandmaster by FIDE, the World Chess governing body.
In similar shoes is G B Prakash, who completed the required norms for his GM title and is waiting for his rating to scale to 2500 points.
Tejas's success comes close on the heels of Swati Ghate, who became the seventh Women's Grandmaster of the country after winning her ninth round game here.
The last round was not devoid of any excitement as many thought. Short did not want to leave any stones unturned in his quest for the back-to-back titles here. He had won the Commonwealth championship at Mumbai on January 18.
Last year, the Englishman, who lives in Greece, had won here jointly with Cyprus GM Vasilios Kotronias.
Indian women team did not have a good final round. S Vijayalakshmi went down to GM Nigel Davies of England with black pieces while Swati lost to Pia Cramling of Sweden who played white. Swati infact needed a win for her International Master norm after the WGM norm.
WGM Nisha Mohota also lost her game against German IM Mathias Womacka but Kruttika Nadig drew with Al Mehdi Mohamed of Morocco. The lone winner amongst the Indian women was S Meenakshi, who beat Lars Eckhardt of Norway.
Important results final round (Indians unless specified):
Nigel Short (8, Eng) beat Ernesto Inarkiev (6, Rus); P Harikrishna (7) drew with urya Shekhar Ganguly (7.5) Murray Chandler (6.5, Eng) drew with lexei Dreev (7, Rus); Abhijit Kunte (6.5) drew with Vladimir Epishin (6.5, Ru); Sandipan Chanda (6.5) drew with Paul Motwani (6.5, Sco); Dibyendu Barua (.5) lost to Peter Wells (7, Eng); Jonathan Speelman (6, Eng) drew with Bogdan Lalic (6, Eng); Andrew Muir (5.5, Sco) lost to Alexey Kuzmin (6.5, Rus); Angelis Del Rio (6.5, Esp) beat Mark Hebden (5.5, Eng); Jonathan Rowson (5.5, Sco) lost to Bojan Vuckovic (6.5, Ser); Tejas Bakre (6.5) beat Aleksander Polulzahov (5.5, Rus); John Shaw (5, Sco) lost to John Emms (6.5, Eng); David Howell (5, Eng) lost to Sarunas Sulskis (6, Ltu); Joseph Gallagher (6, Sui) beat Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan (5, Geo); Mohamed Tissir (5.5, Mor) drew with Chris Ward (5.5, Eng); Nigel Davies (6, Eng) beat S Vijayalakshmi (5); Pia Cramling (6, Swe) beat Swati Ghate (5); Mathias Womacka (5.5, Ger) beat Nisha Mohota, (4.5); S Meenakshi (5) beat Lars Eckhardt (4, Nor); Kruttika Nadig (4.5) drew Al Mehdi Mohamed (4.5, Mor).
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