Crucial for Lalith Babu's tournament victory was his theoretically interesting round eight win against Iranian Grandmaster Amin Tabatabaei, who was leading the tournament at that time.
Lalith Babu vs Amin Tabataei
In the 9th and final round Lalith Babu drew against the 18-year-old Bulgarian female player Nurgyul Salimova, who made her first GM-norm in Cattolica.
Nurgyul Salimova | Photo: Lennart Ootes (Archive)
American talent Hans Moke Niemann finished second on tiebreak. He started the tournament with 3.0/5 but then won his last four games to share first place with 7.0/9. In round 7 he won a theoretically and tactically interesting game against Bharath Subramaniyan from India.
If Niemann had a strong finish, Nigel Short had a bad one. After a difficult start into the tournament he was on 5.5/7 after seven rounds, but then first lost against Salimova in round eight and then against Bernadskiy in Round 9. On Twitter, the FIDE Vice-President, who had only just recovered from a Covid infection, candidly shared his feelings about his play:
I used to play kids who were the same age as my children. Now I play kids who could be my grandchildren. It is a rather depressing reflection :)
— Nigel Short (@nigelshortchess) January 6, 2022
I never thought I would get to the Vergani Cup, in Cattolica, having failed a PCR test less than 48 hours before I arrived. This tournament is an experiment as to whether I am suffering from “brain fog”. The jury is out on that, although I have played better these last 2 days.
— Nigel Short (@nigelshortchess) January 6, 2022
I feel as grumpy as Korchnoi, after that last defeat - & that is not a good sign. Yes, my 2599 rated opponent was dead lost for most of the game, almost blundered mate in 2, & played like utter crap, but that was amply sufficient to beat me. Thankfully there are no more rounds.
— Nigel Short (@nigelshortchess) January 9, 2022
| Rk. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | ||
| 1 |
|
GM | Lalith Babu M R | 2548 | 7,0 | 52,0 |
| 2 |
|
GM | Niemann Hans Moke | 2645 | 7,0 | 51,5 |
| 3 |
|
GM | Bernadskiy Vitaliy | 2589 | 7,0 | 50,5 |
| 4 |
|
IM | Salimova Nurgyul | 2353 | 7,0 | 48,0 |
| 5 |
|
GM | Korobov Anton | 2699 | 6,5 | 53,5 |
| 6 |
|
GM | Lodici Lorenzo | 2524 | 6,5 | 52,0 |
| 7 |
|
IM | Bharath Subramaniyam H | 2476 | 6,5 | 50,5 |
| 8 |
|
IM | Ioannidis Evgenios | 2466 | 6,5 | 50,0 |
| 9 |
|
GM | Lagarde Maxime | 2632 | 6,5 | 48,5 |
| 10 |
|
GM | Tabatabaei M. Amin | 2643 | 6,0 | 53,5 |
| 11 |
|
GM | Thybo Jesper Sondergaard | 2592 | 6,0 | 53,0 |
| 12 |
|
IM | Pantzar Milton | 2434 | 6,0 | 51,5 |
| 13 |
|
IM | Gilevych Artem | 2407 | 6,0 | 49,5 |
| 14 |
|
GM | Dvirnyy Danyyil | 2492 | 6,0 | 48,0 |
| 15 |
|
GM | Brunello Sabino | 2503 | 6,0 | 45,5 |
| 16 |
|
FM | Klabis Rokas | 2356 | 6,0 | 45,0 |
| 17 |
|
IM | Moksh Amit Doshi | 2368 | 6,0 | 42,5 |
| 18 |
|
GM | Short Nigel D | 2633 | 5,5 | 50,0 |
| 19 |
|
CM | Prraneeth Vuppala | 2417 | 5,5 | 49,5 |
| 20 |
|
GM | Arjun Kalyan | 2532 | 5,5 | 49,5 |
| 21 |
|
GM | Alsina Leal Daniel | 2507 | 5,5 | 49,0 |
| 22 |
|
FM | Martinovici Ilia | 2398 | 5,5 | 46,0 |
| 23 |
|
GM | Nikolov Momchil | 2508 | 5,5 | 45,5 |
| 24 |
|
GM | Kozul Zdenko | 2639 | 5,5 | 45,0 |
| 25 |
|
GM | Iniyan P | 2540 | 5,5 | 44,5 |
| 26 |
|
FM | Cumming Rhys | 2358 | 5,5 | 44,5 |
| 27 |
|
FM | Formento Paolo | 2382 | 5,5 | 43,0 |
| 28 |
|
FM | Pasztor Balazs | 2335 | 5,5 | 42,5 |
| 29 |
|
IM | Rakesh Kumar Jena | 2329 | 5,5 | 41,5 |
| 30 |
|
FM | Hess Max | 2404 | 5,5 | 41,0 |
| 31 |
|
FM | Bettalli Francesco | 2302 | 5,5 | 40,5 |
| 32 |
|
CM | Mrithyunjay Mahadevan | 2124 | 5,5 | 39,5 |
| 33 |
|
IM | Unuk Laura | 2359 | 5,5 | 39,5 |
| 34 |
|
GM | Solomon Kenny | 2355 | 5,5 | 39,0 |
| 35 |
|
FM | Frank Emanuel | 2180 | 5,5 | 38,0 |
... 124 participants
