Farrukh Amonatov clinches the crown at first Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess tournament

Top seed Farrukh Amonatov lived up to his billing to clinch the crown at the first Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess tournament in Pune on Thursday.

The week-long tournament, organized by the Maharashtra Chess Association (MCA) under the auspices of the All India Chess Federation (AICF), concluded at the Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi.

Things got interesting in the 11th and final round after Indian GM Arjun Kalyan defeated fourth seed Alexei Federov in a volatile game to tie for top place with Amonatov and Aleksej Aleksander.

Three-way fight between Amonatov, Aleksej and Arjun for top spot

After Arjun Kalyan's sensational win, Amonotov and Federov and Arjun tallied 8.5 points each. A better tie-break score helped Amanotov pip others to emerge as the winner while Aleksej secured second place. Arjun had to stay content with third place but should be happy with this fantastic performance.

The top-board encounter between Amonatov and Aleksej was a short draw lasting a mere 14 moves in the Ruy-Lopez Open. The players just made repeated moves with their queens to quickly shake hands, having done all the hard work early in the tournament.

Deep Sengupta too was in sparkling form and shrugged off Tuesday’s heartbreaking loss to defeat Anuj Shrivatri to finish fourth.

In fact, there was a four-way tie for fourth to seventh place between Deep, Luka, Srihari LR and Kiriil Stupak and they finished in their respective order after the application of tie-break systems.

Srihari too had a wonderful tournament and played above his rating strength. Talented youngster Aditya Mittal, after performing creditably, ended up on the losing side against second seed Luka Paichadze.

On the final day of the competition, Koustuv Kundu drew against GM Vishu Prasanna to make his IM Norm.

Champion GM Farrukh Amonatov receives a trophy and ₹3 lakh

GM Farrukh Amonatov won a trophy and ₹3,00,000, while runner-up GM Aleksandrov Aleksej won the trophy withith ₹2,00,000.

The prizes were given away by AICF president Dr Sanjay Kapoor and MCA president Dr Parinay Fuke.

MCA working president Siddharth Mayur, Grandmaster Abhiit Kunte, Aniruddha Deshpande, Girish Chitale, Niranjan Godbole, Vinaya Vele, Ashwin Trimal, and Chief Arbiter Alokyaraj Paul were present on the occasion.

Results (Round 11)

GM Farrukh Amonatov (8.5) drew with GM Aleksandrov (8.5)

GM Alexei Federov (7) lost to GM Arjun Kalyan (8.5)

IM Aditya Mittal (7) lost to Luka Paichadze (8)

GM Deep Sengupta (8) bt IM Anuj Shrivatri (7)

IM Neelash Saha (7.5) drew Boris Savachenko (7.5)

GM Mihail Nikitenko (7) lost to IM Srihari LR (8)

GM Kiriil Stupak (8) bt CM Kushagra Mohan (7)

IM Krishna Teja (7.5) bt GM MR Lalith Babu (6.5)

GM Nguyen Duc Hoa (6.5) lost to GM MR Venkatesh (7.5)

IM Bhakti Kulkarni (6.5) lost to GM Deepan Chakravarthy (7.5).