Nagpur lad Raunak Sadhwani, was crowned Champion of the IIFL Wealth Mumbai Junior Chess Tournament 2016, which was played at the Mount Litera School International, Bandra (East), Mumbai.
Raunak, along with Bangladesh’s top seed Rahman Mohammad Fahad and Indian challenger Aditya Mittal, finished with identical 7.5 points and were tied for the top spot. However, Raunak with a better tie-break score was declared winner of the top prize, in this total prize fund of 7.5 lakhs event.
(L to R) Shri Karan Bhagat, MD & CEO, IIFL Wealth Group Smt Shilpa Bhagat, Shri Rishi Gupta, President, Mumbai Suburban Chess Association, Shri D V Sundar, Vice President, FIDE, Shri Ronak Sheth, Sr.Vice President, Marketing, IIFL Group, Champion Sadhwani Raunak, Shri Bharat Singh Chauhan, CEO, All India Chess Federation, Shri Ravindra Dongre, Treasurer, All India Chess Federation
Raunak was presented with the Champion trophy and a whopping cash award of Rs 1.5 lakhs. Rahman who clinched the second position went home richer by Rs 1.2 lakhs and Aditya received a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh.
In the final round, Sadhwani facing off against Ridit Nimdia (6.5) came up with an attacking display in a Sicilan game. He was totally in control and forced the win in 30 moves to clinch the decisive point.
Producing an equally quick win was Rahman Mohammad Fahad (Ban) who accounted for Ragav Dhanush.
On the top board, Aditya Mittal of Maharashtra were involved in a tense battle with Tamil Nadu’s Gukesh D (7) before the marathon game ended in stalemate after almost five hours.
The game of the day award ‘ChessBase’ gift voucher, for the round 8 & 9 went to Gukesh D and Rahman Mohammad Fahad (Ban) respectively. Best game of the tournament prize went to Raunak Sadhwani.
This tournament with a total prize money of Rs 7.5 lakhs is the highest in the world for a Junior event. Cash prizes and trophies were distributed to the first 23 finishers in the final list, by Karan Bhagat, MD & CEO, IIFL Wealth Group and Shilpa Bhagat,
Results – 9th & final round (Indians unless specified): D Gukesh (7) drew with Aditya Mittal (7.5), Ragav Dhanush (6.5) lost to Rahman Mohammad Fahad (Ban) 7.5, Raunak Sadhwani (7.5) bt Ridit Nimdia (6.5), Sankarsha Shelke (6.5) drew with Narayani Adane (7), Leon Luke Mendonca (6) lost to Gupta Sankalp (7), Alok Sinha (7) bt P Yutesh (6), Saha Shuban (7) bt Mrudul Dehankar (6), Tripathi Adarsh (7) bt S Abhinessh (6), Aryan Polakhare (6.5) bt Aggarwal Vansh (6), Om Kharola(6.5) bt Sudhanshu Nikam (5.5).
Final Placings: Joint 1-3. Sadhwani Raunak, Rahman Mohammad Fahad (Ban), Aditya Mittal 7.5; 4-9. Gukesh D, Shuban Saha, Adarsh Tripathi, Adane Narayani, Sankalp Gupta, Alok Sinha 7; 10-17. Shelke Sankarsha, Nimdia Ridit, Polakhare Aryan, Om Kharola, Dhanush Ragav, Mullick Raahil, Aditya Savalkar, Vrandesh Parekh 6.5; 18-23. Mendonca Leon Luke, Sriram B, Abhinessh S, Aryan Ranjan, Dushyant Sharma, Yutesh P 6.0 pts.