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Antonio Viani wins double in France

by Shahid Ahmed - 30/10/2019

IM Antonio Viani D'cunha scored an unbeaten 7.0/9 to become champion in 5th Liffré International Open in France. He finished a half point ahead of the runner-up IM Pierre Bailet of France. IM P Konguvel also scored 6.5/9 and he finished shared second. GM Sundararajan Kidambi and IM Satyapragyan Swayangsu scored 6.0/9 each to finish at shared seventh position. All four Indians who participated in this tournament finished in top ten. Antonio also won the Blitz event by scoring 8.0/9 and suffering only one loss. He finished a full point ahead of the runner-up Raphael Lemasle of France. A brief report of the tournament with games and photos. Photo: Anne Ruhlmann / Liffré Open 2019

Antonio Viani wins 5th Liffré Open International

IM Antonio Viani D'cunha scored an unbeaten 7.0/9 to win 5th Liffré Open International. He defeated strong Indian GM Sundararajan Kidambi in the final round to win the tournament.

Champion Viani with the podium finishers runner-up Pierre Bailet (right) and second runner-up Nikolov Momchil (left) | Photo: Anne Ruhlmann / Liffré Open 2019

Viani faced both second and third place finishers

Antonio also won the Blitz event with a score of 8.0/9, suffering only one loss in the third round of the tournament. He finished a full point ahead of the runner-up Rafael Lemasle.

Antonio dominated the Blitz event too | Source: Official site

Konguvel scored 6.5/9 and finished joint second | Photo: Anne Ruhlmann / Liffré Open 2019

Antonio's best win was against compatriot IM P Konguvel in round 7. The eventual champion played the rook endgame correctly which eventually made Konguvel commit an unforced error which helped him secure the full point.

Antonio - Konguvel, round 7

Find out the correct plan for Black here

What is the correct continuation for White here?

In the final round, Antonio faced another compatriot in the form of strong GM Sundararajan Kidambi.

The final round game at the top board was a wild one | Photo: Anne Ruhlamann / Liffré Open 2019

Kidambi - Antonio, round 9

Position after 20...Nxf2

Photo Gallery

Kidambi scored 6.0/9 and finished at shared seventh position | Photo: Anne Ruhlmann / Liffré Open 2019

IM Satyapragyan also scored 6.0/9 and finished at shared seventh position | Photo: Anne Ruhlmann / Liffré Open 2019

The tournament hall | Photo: Anne Ruhlmann / Liffré Open 2019

Top boards in action | Photo: Anne Ruhlmann / Liffré Open 2019

The beautiful trophies, mementoes and medals for the prize winners | Photo: Anne Ruhlmann / Liffré Open 2019

The Prize winners | Photo: Annel Ruhlmann / Liffré Open 2019

Fun Fact

All four Indian players finished in top 10. In all five editions of the tournament, Indian players have always participated in this event. With the exception of the year 2018, all previous editions were won by Indians, 2015 - Stany, 2016 - Thejkumar and 2017 - Venkatesh.

Final Standings in the Open A section

Complete standings

Links

Official site

History of the tournament