Sport - Chess

Eesha, Adhiban claim IM norms

NEW DELHI: A short draw ended Eesha Karavade's long wait for the final International Master norm after facing Qatar's Mohammad Al Sayed in the ninth and concluding round of the Dubai Open chess tournament in Dubai on Monday.

The Pune-based Woman Grandmaster, who finished at 5.5 points, had made norms in Spain and Malaysia last year. Presently rated at 2343, Eesha now needs to raise it to the stipulated 2400-mark in order to be eligible to receive the IM title from FIDE, the world body of chess.

Eesha's stupendous show, during which she faced five Grandmasters and an IM, was worth 24 rating points. In the face of some formidable opposition, Eesha performed at 2470-level and was clearly the pick among the 21-member Indian squad. Eesha also received $425 for topping the ladies prize-list.

Tamil Nadu lad B. Adhiban collected his second IM norm after holding IM in-waiting D. Harika in the final round. Adhiban's maiden IM norm came in January this year in the Parsvnath International here.

The results (ninth round, involving Indians): G.N. Gopal (6) drew with Artashes Minasian (Arm, 6); P.D.S. Girinath (6) drew with K. Humpy (6); Mohammad Al-Modiahki (Qat, 6) bt Tejas Bakre (5); Eesha Karavade (5.5) drew with Mohammad A Sayed (Qat, 5.5); D. Harika (5.5) drew with B. Adhiban (5.5); Vikramaditya Kamble (6) bt R.B. Ramesh (5); Eltaj Safarli (Aze, 6) bt Kruttika Nadig (5); S. Kidambi (4.5) lost to Talal Hilwani (Syr, 5.5); Saleh Jasim (UAE, 5) drew with S. Meenakshi (5); S.P. Sethuraman (5.5) bt Rustum Tolentino (Phi, 4.5); Asghar Golizadeh (Iri, 5.5) bt Sahaj Grover (4.5); M.R. Lalith Babu (4.5) drew with M.A. Sadeghi (Iri, 4.5); Aarthie Ramaswamy (5) bt Mohamed Saud (UAE, 4); Yap Ernesto (Phi, 3.5) lost to N. Srinath (4.5); Ronald Frosch (Aut, 4.5) bt Prasanna Rao (3.5); Amin Khalid (Sud, 3.5) lost to Aditya Udeshi (4.5); Shatrughan Jha (4) bt Alexandra Grishina (Rus, 3); Malalla Khadija (UAE, 2) lost to Shiven Khosla (3).

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