CHANDIGARH, AUG 2 : IM Himal Gusain of Chandigarh won the 9th Ciudad de Oviedo Open 2023 in Spain scoring an unbeaten 7.5/9. The second and third position was secured by FM Zylka Stanislaw of Poland and FM Prado Lovo, Jonas of Spain respectively scoring7/9 each. The nine-round Swiss league Rating tournament was organised from 24th to 30th July, 2023 in Oviedo, Spain.
Himal remained undefeated in the tournament. He won 6 games drew 3 games. In 3rd round he beat IM Contin, Daniel of Italy, 5th game won against IM Goluch of Poland, in 6th round defeated GM Gines Esteo, Pedro Antonio of Spain and 8th round drew against IM Garcia Ramos, Daniel of Spain. His rating performance was 2467 and gained 15.4 FIDE points in the event.
A total of 203 players including 3 GMs, 15 IMs, a WGM and 11 FM took part from 19 countries across the world including fellow Indian GM Neelotpal Das. The Chief Arbitor was FA Sergio Arias Torío and the total prize fund of the event was €4200. The first prize was €1000 + trophy.
This is the fourth triumph for Himal this year. He started the year by winning Surya Trophy Rating Open 2022 in Vadodara, Gujarat. After this he won 19th Caspian Cup 2023 in Rasht, Iran in February 2023. Then he won 14th Vaujany Open 2023 International Chess Festival in France which took place from 13th to 21st July 2023.
“Lifting a title in Spain amongst a strong field of IMs and GMs is a proud moment for all Chandigarh chess lovers. It is surely going to boost the morale of every chess player of Chandigarh. His performance is going to inspire all upcoming chess players of Chandigarh” said Naveen Bansal