India's D Gukesh wins Open Ajedrez La Roda chess tournament in Spain

MUMBAI: India's D Gukesh, the third youngest Grandmaster in the world, has won the 48th Open Ajedrez La Roda chess tournament at La Roda in Spain, overcominng the challenge of Israeli GM Victor Mikhalevski in the final round.

Gukesh, 15, who went into the final round with seven points, defeated Mikhalevski with white pieces to finish with 8.0 points from nine rounds to top a field comprising 193 players.

Armenian GM Haik M. Martirosyan finished second with 7.5 points while Indian GMs R Praggnanandhaa and Raunak Sadhwani finished joint third with three other players -- all five ending their campaigns with 7.0 points from nine rounds. Pragg finished third on tiebreak and Sadhwani was fourth.

Gukesh was in a tough fight with a group of players including compatriot Praggnanandhaa and Sadhwani. But in the end he claimed the title in convincing manner, winning his last round game as Pragg was held to draw by Martirosyan. Sadhwani defeated Zhou Ren Lim of Malaysia in the ninthe round to move to 7.0 points.

Gukesh remained unbeaten in the nine rounds tournament, winning seven games and drawing two. His two draws were against his closest rivals, Martirosyan and Praggnanandhaa, in the fifth and sixth rounds respectively. The 15-year-old from Chennai ended the tournament with a strong finish, winning the last three rounds. (IANS)

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