IM Sankalp Gupta finishes second at Asian Continental selection event

The 17 year old International Master from Nagpur, Sankalp Gupta bagged the silver medal in the Asian Continental selection event of the 2020 World Youth Online Rapid Chess Championship, reported The Times of India.

With this podium finish, Sankalp has qualified for FIDE’s first ever online World Youth Championships which is expected to begin on the upcoming Sunday and will be seen testing his skills in the under-18 open category.

Came 2nd in Asian U-18! Qualified for the Worlds starting from the 19th! pic.twitter.com/Re3XaTbJ7G

— Sankalp Gupta (@gsankalp03) December 13, 2020

Sankalp finished the tournament on equal points with the Indian GM Paneerselvam Iniyan, but finished second on the basis of progressive score.

Sankalp started the tournament on a blazing note, winning his first three matches before he suffered a defeat on time against the Bangladeshi FM Suborta Biswas in the fourth round match.

The Nagpur boy managed to win his next two matches against IM Amit Doshi and IM Neelash Saha before holding GM Iniyan to a draw in the final round match to finish the tournament with 5.5 points out of 7.