Indian GM Aravindh Chithambaram wins chess tourney in Spain, Raunak comes third

Indian Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram emerged the 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, a former national champion, took the top prize on the basis of a superior tie-break score. Sadhwani finished in third place behind the Armenian.

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 a 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.