Grandmaster B Adhiban ensured that there were no hiccups in his quest for the Rejkjavik Open 2018 – Bobby Fischer Memorial title in the final round on Wednesday as he settled for a quick draw against Turkey’s Mustafa Yilmaz.

Yilmaz needed to win the final round against Adhiban, who was half a point ahead of him, to stake his claim to the title. He opted for the Queen’s Gambit with white to try and put pressure on the Indian GM but the champion was never willing to take any risks and signed the peace treaty at the very first opportunity to finish with 7.5 points from a possible nine.

Adhiban, who began with a draw, had stormed into the lead with five successive wins and ended the tournament with six wins and three draws.

Among the other Indians in fray, Nihal Sarin suffered his first loss of the competition when he went down to GM Maxime Lagarde in the last round. His efforts in the tournament saw him clinch his second GM norm. The 13-year-old is now just one norm away from becoming a Grandmaster.

Meanwhile, GM Vaibhav Suri could not break through the defence of GM Pavel Eljanov to settle for a draw after 143 moves in a bishop-knight end game.

R Praggnanadhaa finished joint third with a last round win over N Niranjan but missed out on a GM norm.