KOLKATA: City's International Masters dominated as India swept the podium in Joytu Sheikh Hasina International Grandmasters Chess Tournament that concluded in Dhaka earlier this week.
Nagpur IM Sankalp Gupta won his first gold medal in an international rating tournament finishing unbeaten in this nine-round contest with seven points. Five players scored six-and-a-half points each. In the tie-breaking system, Bengal IMs came to the fore with Mitrabha Guha ending runner-up while Aronyak Ghosh came third. Sayantan Das claimed the fourth spot.
A total of 62 players, including nine GMs and 14 IMs from across the world took part in the tournament organised to mark the 75th birth anniversary of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Mitrabha made a great start winning the first five-round matches to stay ahead. However, an opening mistake led to his downfall against Sankalp in the sixth round. The fifth-seeded city boy with an Elo rating of 2467, still remained on course for the title needing a win in the last round. However, he went down to GM Mosadeghpour Masoud of Iran. "As I was assured of a second spot in case of a draw or loss, I went all out for a win," Mitrabha told TOI on Wednesday, a day after returning to the city.
Like Sankalp, Aronyak, seeded seventh, also finished unbeaten. The bronze medal winner in the National U-18 online rapid event this year, held both Sankalp and Mitrabha.
Tenth-seeded Sayantan too had a good run winning six games, but lost to Sankalp and Mitrabha. Both the IMs gained some valuable Elo points.
