Indian GM Iniyan wins World Open online chess tournament

On the way to his title, Iniyan defeated Grandmasters Baadur Jobava of Georgia, Sam Sevian, Sergey Erenburg of the USA and Nyzhyk Illia of Ukraine.

Chennai: Indian Grandmaster P Iniyan won the prestigious Annual World Open online chess tournament held recently, having practised at night to get used to the American time zone.

GM Iniyan

The Tamil Nadu player scored seven and a half points out of a possible nine with six victories and three draws to finish on top, ahead of many higher-rated Grandmasters, a press release said on Thursday.

On the way to his title, Iniyan defeated Grandmasters Baadur Jobava of Georgia, Sam Sevian, Sergey Erenburg of the USA and Nyzhyk Illia of Ukraine.

GM Iniyan

Iniyan and Sjugiro Sanan finished with 7.5 points, but the Tamil Nadu player emerged winner because of a better tie-break score.

Interestingly, the event was held in the American time zone, meaning that Iniyan was playing from 9:30 pm till 6 am every day. The 17-year old Indian had prepared specifically for this event by practising at night before the tournament.

He said the preparation helped and rated the win over Baadur Jobava as his best game of the tournament.

The 48th edition of the annual event, which ran from August 7-9, was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic following classical time control.

World Open online chess

The results of the event were officially announced a few days ago after Fair Play Analysis.

A total number of 120 players from 16 countries participated in the event which included more than 30 Grandmasters.

Iniyan had recently defeated world number two Fabiano Caruana in an online blitz event.