Top-seeded Indian Grandmaster Nihal Sarin registered his fourth consecutive victory, defeating overnight leader Bardiya Daneshvar of Iran in the final round to finish second at the Asian Individual Open Chess Championship in Al Ain, UAE, on Thursday.
Nihal matched Daneshvar on 7 points but the Iranian became the champion on account of a superior tie-breaker score.
After a rather sedate start, it was a brilliant finish by the Indian, who not only won the silver medal but also booked his berth for the World Cup to be held later this year in New Delhi.
More good news followed for the Indian fans as L R Srihari scored his final Grandmaster norm to become 86th Grandmaster of the country.
It was an unusually long wait as it took him a little over a year to become Grandmaster. Srihari, however, lost the last round against compatriot GM P Iniyan but his earlier form in the tournament ensured that he finished the title.
G B Harshwardhan also made a GM norm and finished ninth in the tournament on six points.
S L Narayanan played out a draw with Ivan Zemlyanskii of Russia to end on 6.5 points and make the cut to the World cup along with Raja Ritvik and V Praneesh who defeated local star A R Saleh Salem and Chinese Dai Changren of China respectively.
In the women's section Vantika Agarwal missed the podium finish despite bringing down overnight sole leader Mungunzul Bat-Erdene of Mongolia. The Indian ended the event with seven points in all but a four-way tie at the top gave her fourth spot with her bad tiebreak.
Among other Indians in the fray, Srija Seshadri drew with Valentina Gunina of Russia to finish on 6.5 points.
© 2025