In an anti-climactic final, last year’s runner-up Grand master Amonatov Farrukh drew with Netherlands’s Pruijssers Roeland to garner eight points and emerge as the clear winner of the 11th Mumbai Mayor’s international tournament on Sunday.
The game between Farrukh and Roeland started with the traditional Scotch opening. With both players exchanging pieces at regular intervals, the game was equally poised. After a continuous exchange of pieces, both players were left with rook and bishop on either side. With no scope of a clear victory, both players agreed for a draw after 25 moves with Farrukh emerging as the winner on the virtue of a better tie-break score.
Amonatov went home with a cash prize of Rs 3.3 Lakhs while the Roeland was offered Rs 2.3 Lakhs for his efforts. India’s International master Karthik Venkatraman (6th), Grand Master Ghosh Diptayan (8th) and Grand Master Deepan Chakravarthy (10th) all finished with 7.5 points each to make it to the top 10. They were awarded cash prizes of Rs 50,000, Rs 25,000 and Rs 15,000 respectively.