The 14-year-old Nihal tallied 5.5 points out of a possible nine and the final GM norm came the Kerala boy’s way with one round to spare.
Daniil Dubov of Russia won one of the strongest Asian open thanks to a better tiebreak with a splendid score of 7.5 points out of a possible nine. Anton Korobov of Ukraine and A R Salem Saleh of Uae matched Dubov on points but the Russian was ahead as the tie was resolved.
Aravindh Chithambaram lost to Salem Saleh in a keenly contested Sicilian game in the final round while Dubov accounted for Ivan CHeparinov of Georgia. The overnight sole leader Korobov was happy to get a draw as black against Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia.
Although Arviandh lost, the 88-member Indian contingent had a lot to cheer as four Grandmaster norms and three International Master norms came India’s way.
Erigaise Arjun, Harsha Bharthakoti and P Iniyan made their Grandmaster norm on a memorable final day while Al Muthiaah, V S Rathanvel and Sankalp Gupta will come back home with International Master norms.
Sargissian finished fourth on 7 points and then there was a big tie for the fifth spot where Murali Karthikeyan, Debashish Das and Harsha Bhartakoti figured.
Bhartakoti had a tall task on hand in the final round as he needed to win against Levan Pantsulaia but the Andhra-based player showed steely nerves to come up trumps.
For Erigaisi Arjun it was relatively easier as he beat N Krishna Teja while Iniyan had played some very high quality opposition that ensured him the GM norm despite a loss to English Grandmaster and FIDE Presidential candidate Nigel Short
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