The Hoogeveen Masters Tournament was not the only thing going on in Hoogeveen, the Hoogeveen Open also concluded on Saturday 22nd October. It saw Indian Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta take victory with an impressive 7½ points from the 9 rounds. Gupta had performed very consistently throughout the tournament, and really had to with the competitive field. He opened with a solid 4/4, his round-four win being at the expense of Dutch Grandmaster, Jan Werle (game, below).
Going in to round-five, he led the event with fellow countryman Babu Lalith, each having the afore-mentioned 4/4 score. They would play each other and, perhaps unsurprisingly, drew. From here, in a solid finish to the tournament, Gupta took another couple of wins and drew his final two games, in order to secure victory by a half point over yet another countryman, GM Chanda Sandipan.
Top Standings:
- Gupta — 7½
- Sandipan — 7
- Lalith, Shyam, Van Foreest, Romanishin, Schoppen — 6½
- Rakesh, Ernst, Nitin, Vereggen — 6
