Indian GM Abhimanyu Puranik won his last four games in a row to take clear first place on 8.5/10 and win the Chessable Sunway Sitges Chess Festival 2023. Four players were tied for second place, with U.S. GM Brandon Jacobson taking the runners-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

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 what was everything you could hope for in a final-round duel.

Puranik was proud of his achievement, but added: “I won the Fussball 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’d in fact tied for first place in 2021, but then narrowly missed out 

Jacobson Wins Playoff For Second

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 runners-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

One other standout result was by a player we can expect to hear much more about in 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’s 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 there’s 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 there are just four more players who have ever become a grandmaster at the age of 12: GMs Sergey Karjakin, Gukesh Dommaraju, Javokhir Sindarov, and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu.