Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta missed out on a podium finish after losing to Eduardo Iturrizaga of Venezuela in the 9th and final round of 16th Dubai International open chess tournament that concluded here.
Having done all the hard work, Gupta fell at the final hurdle and had to be content with a fourth place finish on 6.5 points.
Romain Edouard of France won the tournament defeating top seed Anton Korobov of Ukraine in the final round game. The French Grandmaster ended on a high scoring eight points out of a possible nine and this was amongst his best performance ever. Edouard, for his efforts, gets the winner's cheque of USD 10000.
It turned out to be a two way tie for the second spot as Iturrizaga was joined by Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine on seven points. Kuzubov defeated last year's winner Aleksandr Rakhmanov of Russia. After the tie was resolved, Iturrizaga finished second.
Gupta finished fourth in the company of Andrei Istratescu of France, Armenian duo of Tigran Petrosian and Zaven Andriasian, Gawain Jones of England and Stevic Hrvoje of Croatia.
Apart from Gupta, the other Indians to finish among the prize winners were M R Lalith Babu and M Shyam Sundar after a draw between them in the final round. Both Babu and Sundar ended on six points apiece and finished tied 10th.
It was heartbreak for Gupta in the game against Iturrizaga as the Indian could not get going. The Venezuelan went for the Anti-Grunfeld opening as white and even though Gupta equalised in the opening the position remained a bit passive.
