There are good players in the world, and then there are champions! In order to become champion material in chess you need to play the last rounds well. And in order to play the last rounds well you need to have strong nerves! That's what Hoa Nguyen excels in. The last three grandmaster events that he has participated in, he has won all of them starting from KIIT Open in Bhubaneshwar, Mayor's Cup in Mumbai and now the Bhopal International 2017. How does he do it? "I just wanted to play chess!", says Hoa after the game. The result, prize money, standing all of it comes later. His first aim is to play chess, and make good moves. That's his secret! Quite simple to understand, but extremely difficult to implement!

Hoa Nguyen - the master of Indian grandmaster tournaments

In the last round Hoa Nguyen was against the very strong Russian Ivan Rozum. The Vietnamese GM played a solid game of chess. Ivan made  some errors in the game and before you knew it Nguyen Duc Hoa was on his way to victory!

The Vietnamese GM went back home richer by Rs.2,00,000
Nguyen Hoa speaks to yours truly after the game

Final rankings after round 10

Rk.SNo NamesexFEDRtgIClub/CityPts. TB1  TB2  TB3  TB4  TB5 
17GMNguyen Duc HoaVIE2504Vietnam8,50,062,067,056,257,0
28IMYeoh Li TianMAS2480Malaysia8,00,062,567,052,756,0
36GMTran Tuan MinhVIE2544Vietnam8,00,060,566,052,257,0
45GMAtalik SuatTUR2545Turkey8,00,058,563,048,506,0
527FMShailesh DravidIND2306Maharashtra8,00,057,562,549,506,0
615CMGukesh DIND2362Andhra Pradesh8,00,056,561,548,757,0
73GMTukhaev AdamUKR2575Ukraine8,00,056,060,548,007,0
82GMRozum IvanRUS2595Russia7,50,064,570,050,256,0
91GMGareyev TimurUSA2606USA7,50,062,067,047,757,0
1024IMSangma RahulIND2311Delhi7,50,061,566,045,756,0
1112IMGirish A. KoushikIND2412Karnataka7,50,060,065,047,006,0
129GMHimanshu SharmaIND2469Haryana7,50,059,564,547,257,0
1392Harshavardhan G BIND1984Tamil Nadu7,50,055,559,541,507,0
1435Prakash RamIND2245Punjab7,50,051,054,540,256,0
1510IMKhusenkhojaev MuhammadTJK2451Tajikistan7,00,062,067,545,005,0

Full ranking list 

Malaysian Li Tian Yeoh finished second and took home Rs.1,50,000

GM Tran Tuan Minh of Vietnam is the new rising star of his country. He finished third.

GM Suat Atalik won his last round game against M. Kunal, remained unbeaten and finished fourth

Shailesh Dravid was the highest ranked in the tournament. He played a beautiful last round game to beat IM Muhammad Khusenkhojaev. Here's his interview in which he analyzes the game:
Don't miss out the beautiful queen sacrifice

CM Gukesh, just 11 years old, finished sixth. A fantastic feat

In spite of losing the first round Adam Tukhaev finished seventh

Ivan Rozum lost the last round to Hoa Nguyen and finished eighth

Top seeded Timur Gareyev had to be content with the ninth spot

Video Gallery:

The exciting closing ceremony of the Bhopal International 2017
Upendra Jain, the director of sports of Madhya Pradesh interviewed at the end of the Bhopal international 2017
Interview with IM Girish Koushik, one of the biggest prodigies of Indian chess
The future of India's women chess - Divya Deshmukh