Pranesh M wins the Chola Chess Open in Chennai as nine norms are scored

Grandmaster Pranesh M won the inaugural Chola Chess Open in Chennai, scoring 7 points from nine rounds to finish half a point clear of the field. The 20-year-old sealed the title with victory over Pa Iniyan in the final round on Saturday, taking home the ₹10 lakh first prize. S. L. Narayanan finished second on 6.5 points, ahead of top seed Aravindh Chithambaram on tiebreak, in a field of 86 titled players that included 34 grandmasters. The nine-round classical event ran from 30 October to 7 November, with an average rating of 2412 and a minimum entry rating of 2250. Pranesh's path to the title was not straightforward, as he lost to Narayanan in round seven before beating Harshavardhan G B in round eight to join the lead on six points from eight games.

In the final round he played his first 18 moves against Iniyan without using any time on his clock, sacrificed the exchange for the bishop pair, and finished with more than an hour to spare, while Narayanan's draw with Vitaliy Bernadskiy left Pranesh clear at the top. The win also added 7.6 rating points to Pranesh's tally.

The nine norms broke down as one grandmaster norm, seven international master norms and one women's international master norm. Viresh, the 68th seed rated 2326, began with two and a half points from five games before winning four in a row, the last of them with the black pieces against Leon Mendonca, rated 2629, to finish fifth on six and a half points. Fourteen-year-old Aadik Theophane Lenin of Kerala secured his third and final international master norm with a round to spare. Sarbartho, the 71st seed, beat Greek grandmaster Dimitris Alexakis in round two for his first win against a grandmaster in classical chess, added a win over grandmaster Sayantan Das in round seven, and finished with a rating performance of 2451. Aravindh, the top seed rated 2677, finished third on tiebreak after beating Ethan Vaz in the final round, with Ilamparthi A R, Viresh and Bernadskiy also finishing on six and a half points.