A final round victory over GM Loek Van Wely helped GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly triumph at the Bangkok Open 2016. Ganguly scored a total of 7.5 points and remained unbeaten throughout the course of the event.
The Ganguly-Van Wely battle took off with the ever-popular Sicilian Najdorf. While the Indian GM did obtain a fairly favourable position out of the opening, he was unable to capitalize on it. As such, an equal position arose around the 30-move mark. However, with Van Wely erring on moves 34 and 36, the game swung back in Ganguly’s favour. This time, Ganguly duly grabbed his chance and went on to score the full point.
On the other hand, the Bok-Khairullin encounter ended peacefully whilst GM Vallejo Pons Francisco overcame GM Nigel Short with the black pieces. As such, both – Ganguly and Vallejo – ended up with 7.5 points each. It was Ganguly’s superior tie-break score that helped him finish first, with Vallejo finishing as the runner-up.
Amongst other Indians in the fray, GM Sunilduth had a good tournament, finishing 5th in the final rankings.