Indian International Master (IM) Sankalp Gupta grabbed the title of Joytu Sheikh Hasina International Grand Masters Chess Tournament at the close of ninth round game at Aarokanon Ballroom of Hotel 71 in Paltan yesterday.

Sankalp played a draw against compatriot IM Aronyak Ghosh to secure seven points, the highest, from nine matches of the tournament which also saw three more IMs grab the next top-three spots, ahead of nine Grand Masters (GM) of the tournament.

Three IMs – Mitrabha Guha, Aronyak Ghosh and Sayantan Das and two GMs – Ziaur Rahman and Masoud Musadeghpour - secured equal 6.5 points from nine matches and their position was decided by tiebreaker in which IM Mitrabha, who was sharing the lead with Sankalp after the penultimate round, finished second despite a loss to Iranian GM Masoud in the last match.

IM Aronyak Ghosh and IM Sayantan Das, who beat compatriot IM Srijit Paul, became third and fourth.

GM Ziaur Rahman beat Indian Sanket Chakravarty to finish fifth followed by GM Masoud, who became sixth with 6.5 points.

GM Enamul Hossain Razib became 16th with 5.5 points after a draw with IM Koustav Chatterjee while FM Sheikh Nasir Ahmed finished 22nd with five points.

A total of 62 players including nine GMs and 14 IMs took part in the tournament, sponsored by Canadian University, Bangladesh.