GM SL Narayanan wins bronze, finishes Qatar Masters with best rating performance

Indian Grandmaster S L Narayanan won the bronze medal at the Qatar Masters chess tournament in Doha, outsmarting a strong field.

Narayanan, unbeaten in the nine-round event, finished behind Uzbekistan's Nodirbek Yakubboev and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who won 7 points each. The Uzbek duo won the gold and silver medals.

Narayanan earned the best rating performance of the tournament at 2792.

A former World Junior Championships bronze medallist, Narayanan settled for a draw in his final round against American GM Hikaru Nakamura. Nakamura finished fifth.

Abdusattorov had earlier exploited errors by GM Arjun Erigaisi, who played brilliantly but dropped a rook just when he was about to make a draw and earn a playoff.

Arjun could have won the title had he beaten Abdusattorov, irrespective of what happened in other matches. But a loss to Abdusattorov ruined that hope. 

World no. 1 Magnus Carlsen, who nearly lost again, this time against GM Abhimanyu Puranik, played out a draw and made a dismal 16th-place finish after losing 17.2 rating points.

Apart from Narayanan, a host of renowned Indian players, including D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Nihal Sarin, Aravindh Chithambaram and Aryan Chopra among others competed in the event.