Puranik Wins In Sitges, 12-Year-Old Erdogmus Makes 1st GM Norm
Indian GM Abhimanyu Puranik won his last four games to take clear first place on 8.5/10 and win the Chessable Sunway Sitges Chess Festival 2023. Four players tied for second place, with U.S. GM Brandon Jacobson taking the runner-up spot after winning a playoff final against GM Volodar Murzin. 12-year-old Turkish IM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus continued his meteoric rise by scoring an unbeaten 7.5/10 to score his first grandmaster norm.
- Puranik Takes Clear First In Sitges
- Jacobson Wins Playoff For Second
- 12-year-old Erdogmus Makes First GM Norm
Puranik Takes Clear First In Sitges
The heavy pre-event favorite, world number-eleven GM Leinier Dominguez, pulled out of the tournament after round five, claiming: “I’ve come to a point where I’m simply risking too much if I continue.” That was a chance for the other players and one seized by 23-year-old Puranik.
Chessable Sunway Sitges Final Standings
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | |
| 1 | 6 | GM | Puranik, Abhimanyu | 2627 | 8.5 | |
| 2 | 17 | GM | Jacobson, Brandon | 2538 | 8 | |
| 3 | 3 | GM | Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr. | 2646 | 8 | |
| 4 | 5 | GM | Murzin, Volodar | 2627 | 8 | |
| 5 | 42 | IM | Fernandez Guillen, Ernesto J. | 2462 | 8 | |
| 6 | 11 | GM | Sethuraman, S.P. | 2582 | 7.5 | |
| 7 | 30 | GM | Iniyan, Pa | 2500 | 7.5 | |
| 8 | 39 | IM | Tiglon, Bryce | 2485 | 7.5 | |
| 9 | 35 | IM | Erdogmus, Yagiz Kaan | 2496 | 7.5 | |
| 10 | 31 | GM | Raja, Rithvik R | 2500 | 7.5 | |
| 11 | 21 | GM | Pranesh, M | 2523 | 7.5 | |
| 12 | 33 | GM | Abdisalimov, Abdimalik | 2496 | 7.5 | |
| 13 | 19 | GM | Vignesh, N R | 2529 | 7.5 | |
| 14 | 22 | GM | Sankalp, Gupta | 2523 | 7.5 | |
| 15 | 28 | GM | Bharath, Subramaniyam H | 2504 | 7.5 | |
| 16 | 41 | FM | Makkar, Rajat | 2465 | 7.5 |
Puranik lost to Jacobson in round six and thought that was the end of any hopes of winning the trophy: "To be honest, when I came to this tournament, I just wanted to finish on the podium.... After the sixth round, which I lost, I was just playing for my pride. I was not thinking about the victory."
After the sixth round, which I lost, I was just playing for my pride.
—Abhimanyu Puranik
Playing for pride worked out perfectly, since Puranik won the next four games to take clear first place.
The final game was key, as Puranik took on his dangerous Indian countryman GM S.P. Sethuraman. It was a rollercoaster, with Puranik explaining that it was all about the clock and that it was hard to pinpoint where exactly his opponent went wrong:
"I just wanted him to get into time trouble first.... The main mistake you can make is spending too much time on a move that doesn’t require so much time."
Let's take a look at everything you could hope for in a final-round duel.
Puranik was proud of his achievement but added: "I won the Foosball tournament—that was actually a bigger accomplishment than winning the main event for me!"
Puranik was also grateful to have wrapped up clear first, since that avoided the playoffs that are a big feature of the final day in Sitges. He had, in fact, tied for first place in 2021 but then narrowly missed out
Jacobson Wins Playoff For Second
Sunway Sitges playoffs stand out for a couple of reasons. One is that they're not played only for first place, while the other is that they're played outside.
It is time for playoffs!! #SunwayChess pic.twitter.com/oUDWVdBl4M
— Sunway Chess Festival (@SunwayChessOpen) December 22, 2023
Four players tied for second place and would play semifinals and a final, with each match consisting of two 5+3 blitz games followed, if needed, by an armageddon game, where White has six minutes to Black's five, but Black wins in case of a draw.
20-year-old U.S. rising star Jacobson was the only player to beat Puranik in the main event, and then in the playoff, he scored a 2-0 win over Cuban IM Ernesto Fernandez Guillen, who had earlier been one of three players to defeat second-seed GM Kirill Alekseenko. The other semifinal, meanwhile, had an element of controversy, as after two draws, Murzin managed to win the armageddon by winning on time with the white pieces in this dead-drawn position.
Here GM Aravindh Chithambaram made the practical mistake of playing 69...h2, starting the 50-move count to a draw all over again.
Karma was swift, however, as Jacobson took the runner-up spot by winning the second game of the final against Murzin after the first ended in a draw.
Congratulations to Brandon Jacobson on winning the #SunwaySitges playoff to take the runners-up spot! https://t.co/fHdN09jXsi #c24live pic.twitter.com/S0QZiwLqwN
— chess24.com (@chess24com) December 22, 2023
Another standout result was by a player we can expect to hear much more about in the future.
12-year-old Erdogmus Makes First GM Norm
Erdogmus, seeded 35th, finished in the tie for sixth place on 7.5/10, which would be a notable result even without the fact that the Turkish player is just 12 years old.
This was his first grandmaster norm, but as you can see, he has now stormed through the 2500-rating requirement for the full grandmaster title. That means he needs two more norms to become a grandmaster, and since his birthday is June 3, he has plenty of time to accomplish that. He can't be the world's youngest-ever grandmaster, as that will remain GM Abhimanyu Mishra (12 years, four months, 25 days), but just four more players have ever become a grandmaster at the age of 12: GMs Sergey Karjakin, Gukesh Dommaraju, Javokhir Sindarov, and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu.
Replay all the games from the Chessable Sunway Sitges Chess Festival on our Events page.
Previous Coverage:
Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
