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Kidambi finally gets his IM title

Sundararajan Kidambi became India's newest International Master after scoring an emphatic victory over Boris Panomariov in the final round of the Biel Open chess championship in Switzerland.

Kidambi, having been denied his third and final IM norm by the arbiter on a technicality after his ninth round drawn game against GM Klovans, needed a victory in the final round for his IM title and went about his task with clinical precision.

However, his compatriot R B Ramesh squandered an advantage to draw his game against Volokitin thereby missing an excellent opportunity to finish in joint first place.

IM V Saravanan held highly rated GM Rashkovsky to finish in third spot while T S Ravi defeated Ian Thompson of England.

IM Konguvel was the lone Indian to lose his game, going down to Pikula for his second successive defeat.

Faced with the Dutch defence stonewall set-up from Panomariov, Kidambi obtained a solid advantage in the opening and found an excellent combination to win his opponent's exchange and two pawns.

In return, Ponomariov stepped up his attack but the former junior national champion his cool and returned the exchange on time and won the game in 39 moves.

Kidambi got his first norm in the championship in Biel itself last year and his second norm in the British Championship the same year.

On the fourth board IM Ramesh obtained an attacking position from the black side of the Sicilian classical variation. In the middlegame, he missed a promising continuation and allowed Volokitin to escape with a draw in a rook and pawn ending. Ramesh finished on the joint second spot with 7.5 points.

Sarvanan, playing black, faced the Bayonet attack of Kings Indian variation and allowed his opponent to get a slightly better middlegame as Rashkovsky had good control over the light squares. Rashkovsky committed some errors and repeated the moves to settle for a draw in 29 moves. Saravanan finished with 7 points to be on the joint third spot.

IM Konguvel faced the Sicilian Paulsen variation and could not get much advantage out of the opening. In an even position Pikula repeated the moves, signalling an intention for a draw.

Konguvel rejected the offer and sacrificed two pawns for an initiative. But Pikula defended the position well and went on to win the game.

T S Ravi finished the tournament on a winning note, defeating Ian Thomson of England. From an English Symmetrical opening, Ravi won a pawn early. However, his opponent had the double Bishop advantage as compensation. Ravi patiently defended his opponent's aggressive intentions to clinch a victory in 40 moves.

Final Placings:

Avrukh (8), Huzmann (7.5), Galkin Alexander (7.5), Shariyazdanov (7.5), R B Ramesh (7.5), S Kidambi (7), V Sarvanan (7), P Konguvel (6), T S Ravi (6).