Ramesh earns GM norm

International Master R B Ramesh won his his first Grandmaster norm but had to rest content with a fourth place in the Biel Masters chess tournament after losing another tie-break, this time to Swiss GM Vadim Milov in the play-off to decide the third place.

GM Boris Avrukh of Israel won the tournament, winning the the tie-break games against compatriot GM Mihal Kobalija after drawing the classical games.

Avrukh had defeated Ramesh in tie-break games to advance into the final on Friday.

Ramesh was the only player to defeat Avrukh in the tournament, when he won in the fourth round.

The other Indians -- GM Abhijit Kunte, GM aspirants D V Prasad, P Konguvel and Aarthie Ramaswamy had mixed final day.

Kunte, who was in with a chance to finish clear fifth, lost to GM Tomasz Marowski of Poland and was relegated to a joint 12th position in the merit list with 7 points.

Konguvel finished his Swiss outing on a positive note by cruising past Becker Martin of Germany while double GM norm holder Prasad and Aarthie settled for draws.

Playing black once again, Ramesh stuck to his new found love in the two Knights Tango defence and again found his opponent hapless in the rather unusual middlegame.

Fewer pieces got exchanged and Milos found himself in difficulties on the kingside as Ramesh made steady improvement. The game however ended rather abruptly when both players decided to agree to the draw.

Results:
1-2 Boris Avrukh beat Kobalija Mihail 0.5-0.5, 1-1, 1-0
3-4 Vadim Milov beat R B Ramesh 0.5-0.5, 2-0.

Other important results:
Kempinski Robert (7.5) drew Solak Dragan (7.5), Abhijit Kunte (7) lost to T Markowski (8), Pavlovic Milos GM (7.5) drew Cvitan Ognjen (7), Gershon Alik (6) lost to Beshukov Sergei (7); Fish Gennadi (7) drew Pikula Dejan (7); Arizmendi Martin (7) bt Vuckovic Bojan (6); Misiano Franco (6) drew D V Prasad (5.5); P Konguvel (6) bt Becker Martin (5); Sadeghi Hasan (5.5) drew Aarthie Ramaswamy(5.5).