India's Malayali Grandmaster Nihal Sarin wins Tashkent Open

India's Malayali Grandmaster Nihal Sarin won the 18th Tashkent Open Agzamov Memorial chess tournament in the Uzbek capital on March 29.

The 20-year-old from the Thrissur district in central Kerala finished unbeaten in the 10-round event, taking 8 points, with six wins and four draws.

Hungarian GM Sanan Sjugirov (7.5) took second place, while India's GM Abhimanyu Puranik (7.5) finished third. Another Keralite, GM S L Narayanan, finished on 7 points. The Thiruvananthapuram native had the third-best finish among the Indians in the event.

The final round witnessed draws on the top three boards. Nihal drew with black pieces against local favourite GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov, while Puranik split a point, playing white, against Serbian Indjic Aleksandar. Narayanan had white on the third board.

Nihal should gain at least 7 points from his win in the event, taking his Elo points to 2693. No Kerala player has hit the 2700 mark in FIDE ratings.