Philippines Grandmaster Oliver Barbosa (8.5) kept his overnight lead intact to emerge champion with 8.5 points in the 4th KIIT Cup Odisha International GM Open Chess Tournament, which concluded here at KIIT University campus today. Fifth seed Barbosa drew his 10th and last-round duel with Indian IM Sahaj Grover to bag the top prize of Rs 2 lakhs.

Five players tied for the second position with eight points each. However, Russia GM and third seed Nikolai Chadaev, who signed peace treaty with fellow Russia GM Andrei Deviatkin, claimed the runner-up prize of Rs 1.20 lakhs, while Grover finished third to take home Rs 70,000.

Top seed and defending champion Aleksej Aleksandrov failed to live up to his reputation as he occupied the 11th position with 7.5 points. The Belarus Grandmaster won his last round game against beat IM BS Shivananda (India).

IM Debashis Das proved to be host Odisha`s best performer, finishing ninth among a total of 254 competitors with 7.5 points. Das, who won the National Challenger title last week at Tirupati, beat Ponnuswamy Konguvel in the last round.

Besides Debasis, 11 other Odisha players secured places among the top 100 finishers. They include WGM Padmini Rout (6.5, 38th), Anwesh Upadhyaya (6.5, 39th), Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (6.5, 41st), Sidhant Mohapatra (6.5, 47th), Kiran Manisha Mohanty (6.5, 52nd), Mohammad Ashraf (6, 55th), Soumya Ranjan Mishra (6, 64th), Rajendra Kumar Sahu (6, 69th), Rakesh Kumar Nayak (5.5, 81st), Rabindra Kumar Ojha (5.5, 86th), Sunyasakta Satpathy (5.5, 91st).

Thirteen-year-old Tamil Nadu boy Murali Karthikeyan, who held Russia GM Andrei Deviatkin to a draw earlier in the seventh round, secured an IM norm by splitting point with Odisha FM Soumya Ranjan Mishra in the penultimate round.

Sports Minister Badri Narayan Patra handed over the trophy and cash prizes in the presence of All Orissa Chess Association president Sekhar Chandra Sahu and secretary Vivek Kumar Tibarewal.
The week-long tournament, carrying a total cash prize of Rs 11.16 lakhs, was earlier inaugurated by State IT Department Secretary Madhusudan Padhi. Sports Department Secretary Saswat Mishra, KIIT founder Achyuta Samanta and All India Chess Federation secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan were present on the occasion.