Grandmaster Yuri Drozdovskij (Ukraine) came from behind to win the title in the 1st SCS International Open GM Chess Tournament, which concluded at hotel Swosti Plaza in Bhubaneswar today. Drozdovskij beat Grandmaster Yaroslav Zinchenko (Ukraine) in the 10th and final round and overtook overnight sole leader Igor Kurnosov (Russia) to script a memorable triumph. Four foreign Grandmasters _ Drozdovskij, Kurnosov, Andrey Rychagov (Russia) and Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukraine) _ and India’s MS Thejkumar tied for the top spot with eight points each. But bespectacled Drozdovskij was eventually declared champion as his Buccholz score (65) was greater than the other four (64.5, 63.5, 63 and 58.5). Not being the outright winner, Drozdovskij could not claim the top prize of Rs 2 lakhs. Instead, the top five finishers were given Rs 96,000 each. Fourth seed Drozdovskij credited his title triumph to lady luck and fine performance in the second half of the tournament. ``I was lucky that overnight leader Kurnosov drew his last round game while I won. In fact, victories in the last three rounds helped me bounce back and win the title,’’ he explained. The Ukraine GM described the tournament as well organized and a tough event. ``The field was very storong and Indian youngsters put up impressive performance. The tournament was first of its kind in Orissa and it should help the game become more popular in the state,’’ he observed. India’s Thejkumar impressed everybody in the tournament, winning eight out of 10 games. He played aggressive chess and beat two Grandmasters on his way to the fifth place in the final standings. In the last round, Thejkumar upset Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta. Eight players shared the second position with 7.5 points each, while 27 jointly occupied the third position with seven points apiece. World under-14 girls’ champion Padmini Rout finished as most successful Orissa player, occupying the 38th position with seven points in her kitty. She capped her campaing with a fine win against International Master Arghyadip Das. After a shock defeat against lower-rated state opponent Sunyasakta Satapathy in the fifth round, WIM Padmini was under tremendous pressure. But unfazed, she notched four wins in a row to live up to her reputation as the most successful chess player of the state. Five other Orissa players (Anwesh Upadhyaya, Debasish Das, Kiran Manisha Mohanty, Swayangsu Satyapragyan and Manoj Kumar Panigrahi) did well by finishing with six points each. RESULTS (Round 10): Top 25 boards: Igor Kurnosov (Rus, 8) drew with Georgy Timoshenko (Ukr, 7.5), B Adhiban (Ind, 7) lost to Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr, 8), Yuri Drozdovskij (Ukr, 8) bt Yaroslav Zinchenko (Ukr, 7), Abhijeet Gupta (Ind, 7) lost to MS Thejkumar (Ind, 8), Andrey Rychagov (Rus, 8) bt Roman Ovetchkin (Rus, 7), Evgeny Vorobiov (Rus, 7) drew with Anuar Ismagambetov (Kaz, 7.5), Alexander Zubarev (Ukr, 7) drew with Himanshu Sharma (Ind, 7), Enamul Hossain (Ban, 7.5) bt DV Prasad (Ind, 6.5), Neelotpal Das (Ind, 7) drew with Srinath Narayanan (Ind, 7), Saptarshi Roy (Ind, 6) lost to Rustam Khusnutdinov (Kaz, 7.5), Minhazuddin Ahmed (Ban, 7) drew with Serikbay Temirbayev (Kaz, 7), Tejas Bakre (Ind, 7.5) bt Nikil P Shyam (Ind, 6.5), Swapnil S Dhopade (Ind, 6.5) lost to SP Sethuraman (Ind, 7.5), MR Venkatesh (Ind, 6.5) lost to Rahul Sangma (Ind, 7.5), Ponnuswamy Konguvel (Ind, 7.5) bt Shreyansh Daklia Jain (Ind, 6.5), Sergei Tiviakov (Ned, 7) bt Mohammad Abdul Malek (Ban, 6.5), Sergey Vokarev (Rus, 7) bt P Mahreswaran (Ind, 6), RR Laxman (Ind, 6.5) drew with Atanu Lahri (Ind, 6.5), Meenakshi Subbaraman (Ind, 7) bt Amon Simutowe (Zam, 6), Anwesh Upadhyaya (Ind, Ori, 6.5) drew with Alexander Fominyh (Rus, 6.5), Bitan Banerjee (Ind, 7) bt Deepan Chakkravarthy (Ind, 6), MR Lalith Babu (Ind, 6) lost to Anup Deshmukh (Ind, 7), V Vishnu Prasanna (Ind, 6.5) drew with Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (Ind, 6.5), Deep Sengupta (Ind, 7) bt R Arun Karthik (Ind, 6), Sriram Jha (Ind, 7) bt GB Joshi (Ind, 6). Other Orissa results: Padmini Rout (7) bt Arghyadip Das (Ind, 6), Debasish Das (6.5) drew with Kirnan Manisha Mohanty (Ind, Ori, 6.5), Swayangsu Satyapragyan (6.5) bt T Purushothaman (Ind, 5.5), Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (5.5) lost to PDS Girinath (Ind, 6.5), Debasis Chakrabarty (5.5) lost to Aminul Kh Islam (Ban, 6.5), Soumya Ranjan Mishra (6) drew with Swayams Mishra (6), Mohammad Ashraf (6) drew with Nassir Wajih (Ind, 6), Manoj Panigrahi (6.5) bt Prince Bajaj (Ind, 5.5), Sekhar Chandra Sahu (6) bt Bhagawati Prasad Sharma (Nep, 5), Pabitra Mohan Mohanty (6) bt ML Abhilash Reddy (Ind, 5), Subhranshu Mohan Satpathy (5) lost to Javed Mohammad (Ban, 6), Rajat Kumar Sahoo (5.5) drew with Rajib Dhar (Ind, 5.5), Krishan Soni (5) lost to Rajendra Prasad Shrestha (Nep, 6), Sidhant Mohapatra (5.5) drew with Ch Divyasri (Ind, 5.5). Final standings (Top 10): 1. Yuri Drozdovskij (Urk, 8), 2. Irog Kurnosov (Rus, 8), 3. Andrey Rychagov (Ukr, 8), 4. Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr, 8), 5. MS Thejkumar (Ind, 8), 6. Enamul Hossain (Ban, 7.5), 7. Georgy Timoshenko (Ukr, 7.5), 8. SP Sethuraman (Ind, 7.5), 9. Ponnuswamy Konguvel (Ind, 7.5), 10. Rahul Sangama (Ind, 7.5). Prize money: 1st to 5th positions: Rs 96,000 each, 6th to 13th positions: Rs 14,750, 14th to 40th positions: Rs 5,315 each, 41st to 60th positions: Rs 3,225 each. Caption: Top: Champion Yuri Drozdovskij (right) and runners-up Igor Kurnosov with their prizzes at closing function of the SCS International Open GM Chess Tournament in Bhubaneswar today. Bottom: Champion Yuri Drozdovskij with his fiancee Natalia Zdebskaja after winning the SCS International Open GM Chess Tournament in Bhubaneswar today.