Abhijeet Gupta drew with Holland’s Jorden Van Foreest. (file)

Grandmaster and former world junior champion D Harika was adjudged the best woman player after she settled for a draw with Alon Mindlin of Israel in the ninth and final round of Poker Masters Isle of Man Chess tournament. Harika knew that a draw would be enough for the first place and did not exert much in the last game of the tournament. The Indian finished with 5.5 points — enough to clinch the top prize in the women’s category (£2,000).

Grandmaster Nigel Short of England won the tournament with an impressive victory over overnight joint leader and compatriot David Howell in the final round. Short came up with an excellent King side attack leaving Howell’s kingside in tatters. The victory was worth £6,000 for Short.

Indian Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta could not reverse his fortunes and had to split the point with Jorden Van Foreest of Holland. Gupta ended up in 12th place on 5.5 points.

Harika took the honours in women’s section by going for the sharp Ragozine defence as black against Israel’s Mindlin. Mindlin thought he had some chances after he stopped Harika from castling but soon after trading of the queens, it was clear that black’s position was impregnable. When more exchanges became imminent the players decided to share the point. The game was over in a mere 22 moves.

The second prize in the women’s section was shared by Elisabeth Paehtz of Germany and ELina L’Ami of Romania who both finished with five points apiece.

In the open section, Short finished a full point ahead of nearest contenders ending on 7.5 points in all. There was a four-way tie for the second spot and the prizes were equally shared by Sergei Tiviakov of Holland, Laurent Fressinet of France, Gil Popilski of Israel and Howell. They scored an identical 6.5 points. Popilski held second seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France to a draw while Tiviakov went for a quick draw with Fressinet in other top games of the final round.

Final round results: Nigel Short (Eng, 7.5) beat David Howell (Eng, 6.5); Sergei Tiviakov (Ned, 6.5) drew with Laurent Fressinet (Fra, 6.5); Gil Popilski (Isr, 6.5) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 6); Jonathan Hawkins (Eng, 6) drew with Gabriel Sargissian (Arm, 6); Michael Adams (Eng, 6) beat Keith Arkell (Eng, 6); Gawain Jones (Eng, 6) beat Danny Raznikov (Isr, 5); Abhijeet Gupta (Ind, 5.5) drew with Jorden Van Foreest (Ned, 5.5); Daniel Gormally (Eng, 5.5) drew with Daniel Fridman (Ger, 5.5); Bryan Smith (USA, 5.5) drew with Alon Greenfeld (Isr, 5.5); Alon Mindlin (Isr, 5.5) drew with D Harika (Ind, 5.5).

Narayanan closes in on GM norm

Pune: International Master S L Narayanan needs just a draw against China’s Wei Yi in the eighth round to secure a Grandmaster norm in the World Junior Chess Championship.

After winning the national junior championship some time back, Narayanan had announced his arrival in the Indian chess scene and the youngster has lived up to expectations in the premier event for junior players here.

Having beaten the likes of Vladislav Kovalev of Belarus and Kamil Dragun of Poland earlier in the tournament, Narayanan currently shares the second spot in the championship on 5.5 points and will look forward to his Grandmaster norm first before going further.

While Narayanan has been the best player among Indians thus far, the Grandmaster trio of Vidit Gujrathi, Sahaj Grover and Ankit Rajpara have not quite posed the challenge they were expected to do.

Grover and Rajpara have 4.5 points each while Gujrathi is only on four points despite starting as the highest rated Indian and the defending bronze medallist. Grover was doing well until the last round when disaster struck and he handed the game in a platter to Karen Grigoryan of Armenia. There was certain exhaustion visible in Grover’s game and the rest day should help him recover soon.

Peru’s Jorge Cori is leading the pack with six points. Narayanan is sharing the second spot with Wei Yi, Lu Shanglei of China and Karen Grigoryan. Grandmaster in waiting Arvindh Chathambaram is among those who have five points each.

In the girls’ championship, Padimini Rout meets her toughest opponent after the lone rest day in defending champion Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia.

Rout has been at her best in the event so far and a good result in the next round can propel her to go for the gold which has thus far eluded the Indian girl. Rout had won gold medal in Olympiad for her individual performance two months back.