HÀ NỘI — No 4 seed Mareco Sandro of Argentina won the eighth HDBank International Chess Open Tournament, which closed in Hà Nội yesterday.

The Grandmaster (GM) took the trophy winning 7.5 points after nine games. He scored six wins, three draws and did not lose any game at the tournament.

In the last match yesterday morning, Sandro had to vie for the title against two other rivals, Vietnamese International Master (IM) Lê Tuấn Minh and Indian GM Karthikeyan Murali, who also had 6.5 points.

While his two rivals met each other and finished their game in a draw, Sandro defeated his country-fellow GM Krysa Leandro after 41 moves to win the Master category title.

Murali came second while Minh was in fourth place. Minh, however, became a phenomenon here as he was the only IM player not to lose a single game here and finish in the top four.

"It is a difficult tournament for me because it brought here not only all the strongest players of Việt Nam such as Lê Quang Liêm and Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn but also powerful international masters. However, I have played pretty well and am happy with the result," said Minh.

"It would be a strong force for me ahead of the four to five events that are coming up. I hope to have a better result," he added.

Sandro, 31, won the U20 title of the South America Championship in 2007.

He won the national championship and the American Championship in 2015. He took part in the Chess World Cup in 2011, 2013, 2015.

Last year, Sandro made his name in the world top 100 for the first time. He is currently world No 148. It was the second time that Sandro joined the HDBank Open. He ranked eighth in his debut last year with 0.5 points less than the winner Liêm.

Sandro did not have an impressive start this year with one win and two draws but the Argentinean athlete had a remarkable performance with four wins in a row in the next four games to join the leading group.

Tuấn Minh ended his winning streak with a draw in the eighth game but Sandro could decide his fate with a win in the final match and become the new king of the tournament with a bonus of US$15,000.

No 1 seed Liêm did not perform his best at this event and finished sixth with 6.5 points.

GM Trần Tuấn Minh was the third Vietnamese in the top 10. He did have a great start from the beginning but could not maintain his peak until the end. He ranked seventh with 6.5 points.

On the women’s side, Saduakassova Dinara of Kazakhstan topped the podium with six points. Lei Tingjie from China was second, followed by Indian Kulkarne Bhakti.

In the Challengers pool, Ocido Michael of the Philippines won the trophy with 7.5 points after nine games.

FIDE Master Vương Trung Hiếu of Việt Nam came second and Filipino Tiauson Recarte was third. — VNS