Chess
Praggnanandhaa, P V Nandhidhaa win Asian Chess Championship titles
India won all six medals on offer at Asian Chess Championship with Praggnanandhaa and Nandhindaa as champions.
P V Nandhidhaa and R Praggnanandhaa emerged as champions at Asian Chess Championships. (source: SAI Media)
Indian chess team registered a clean sweep of the podium at the ongoing 2022 Asian Continental Chess Championship by bagging all six medals on offer in the classical section.
Top-seeded Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa and compatriot P V Nandhidhaa won the titles in the Open and women's sections respectively in the Asian Continental Chess championship on Thursday.
Harsh Bharatakothi and B Adhiban finished second and third place in the open section while Priyanka Nutakki and Divya Deshmukh finished second and third in the women's section respectively.
Praggnanandhaa drew with compatriot B Adhiban in a 63-move game in the ninth and final round to emerge a clear winner with seven points.
The youngster from Chennai had gone into the final round with half a point lead over the rest of the field. He held off the challenge from the experienced Adhiban and shared honours to win the top prize. The triumph also earned Praggnanandhaa a ticket to the next FIDE World Cup.
S L Narayanan, Harsha Bharathakoti, Karthik Venkataraman and Shamsiddin Vokhidov, the other players who had an outside chance of a shot at the title, missed out after drawn games.
While Narayanan and Vokhidov settled for a draw, Bharathakoti and Venkataraman had to be content with a half-a-point each after their game ended in a stalemate.
GM S P Sethuraman defeated IM Koustav Chatterjee in 41 moves to join five others on 6.5 points. Harsha Bharathakoti took the second spot on the basis of a better tie-break score while Adhiban was third. Narayanan, Vokhidov, Sethuraman and Venkataraman finished fourth to seventh respectively.
In the women's event, WGM Nandhidhaa drew her ninth-round match against Divya Deshmukh to finish with 7.5 points. The 26-year-old Tamil Nadu player remained unbeaten through the nine rounds and won six games.
Priyanka Nutakki, Divya Deshmukh and Thi Kim Phung Vo (Vietnam) finished equal on 6.5 points but Nutakki took second place on the basis of a better tie-break. Deshmukh finished third and Vo was placed fourth.
Final Rankings:
Open: 1. R Praggnanandhaa 7 points, 2. Harsha Bharathakoti 6.5, 3. B Adhiban 6.5
Women: 1. P V Nandhidhaa 7.5 points, 2. Priyanka Nutakki 6.5, 3. Divya Deshmukh 6.5
(With PTI Inputs)
