ChessMine Open FIDE Rated Rapid Chess Tournament: City lad IM Girish Koushik finishes third

Mysuru lad IM Girish Koushik (Rating 2319) taking part in the ChessMine Open Rated Rapid Chess Tournament 2017 conducted by ChessMine Ltd at SG Convention hall, Bengaluru from Aug. 5-7 finished third by securing 8.5 points from 10 rounds. GM Abhijeet Gupta won the title after winning the playoffs by beating GM Gopal and IM Girish Koushik. GM G.N. Gopal (Rating 2538), IM Girish Koushik (Rating 2319), FM G.V. Sai Krishna (Rating 2369) and GM Abhijeet Gupta (Rating 2568) tied with 8.5 points each from 10 rounds. The four players in order to decide the winner played the tie-break blitz. GM Abhijeet Gupta won and clinched the title. Lots were drawn and Abhijeet coasted to victory 2-0 over Girish, while Gopal beat Sai Krishna 2-0. In the decider Abhijeet beat Gopal 1.5-.5 to win in the blitz tie-breaks and with that the title. GM Abhijeet Gupta won the first place, while GM G.N. Gopal secured the second place. IM and Mysuru lad Girish A. Koushik secured the third place. Sai Krishna secured the fourth place. Girish had wins over Siva Vamsi Krishna, Saikat Nath, AGM S.K. Shahid Ahmed, Chethan Sharma, IM S. Satyapragyan, GM Deep Sengupta, Hemant Sharma and IM C.R.G. Krishna. He had a loss in the 8th round against GM G.N.Gopal. In the final round he drew with GM Abhijit Kunte. The winner took home a cash prize of Rs. One lakh with a trophy, while the runner-up secured a cash prize of Rs.70,000 and a trophy. The third and fourth place winners secured 50,000 and 30,000 respectively. GM Vidit Santosh Gujarathi won the Blitz tournament held on Aug. 7 securing 10 points from 11 rounds. He won a cash prize of Rs.35,000 while GM Gagare Shardul secured the second place with 9 points and won a cash prize of Rs.25,000. GM S.P.Sethuraman secured the third place with 9 points and took home a cash prize of Rs.15,000.