Chess: Grandmaster Iniyan to play FIDE World Cup after pipping Gukesh in qualifier

Indian Grandmaster P Iniyan on Sunday qualified for the FIDE World Cup, scheduled to be held in July, by winning the AICF World Cup qualifier online chess tournament.

Iniyan and fellow GM from Tamil Nadu, D Gukesh had finished on 12.5 points each after 17 rounds but the former took the top prize since he had emerged winner in the match between the two in round 14.

Iniyan entered the final day with 10.5 points in his pocket and ahead of Gukesh by half a point. He defeated Rithwik Raja in the 15th round and P Saravana Krishnan in the 16th before losing to Deep Sengupta.

However, the defeat in the 17th round did not prove costly.

He scored 12 wins and suffered three losses in the tournament. The Salem-based GM had scored wins over fancied B Adhiban in the second round apart from scoring GMs SL Narayanan and Vishnu Prasanna but lost to Surya Sekhar Ganguly.

GM S P Sethuraman finished third behind Iniyan and Gukesh with 10.5 points while Ganguly (10 points) took the fourth spot.

The FIDE World Cup will be played from July 10 at Sochi in Russia.

“I am delighted to win the event and qualify for the World Cup. I am happy with the way I played in…

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