Praggnanandhaa and Nandhidhaa becomes Asian champions

Top seed Grandmaster R. Praggnanandhaa and Woman Grandmaster Nandhidhaa PV became the Asian champions in the Open and Women's sections respectively in the Asian Continental Chess Championship, which concluded here late on Thursday.

Praggnanandhaa started the final round with a lead of half-a-point over the nearest contenders and drew his ninth-round encounter with compatriot B. Adhiban in 63 moves to emerge as clear champion with seven points.

A six-way tie for the runners-up position with six-and-a-half points was resolved by tie break score and Harsha Bharathakoti finished ahead of the rest while B Adhian completed the Indian domination with a third-place finish. Narayanan SL, Vokhidov Shamsiddin of Uzbekistan, Sethuraman SP and Karthik Venkataraman had to be satisfied with fourth to seventh-place finish.

In the women's category, Nandhidhaa drew her final-round game against Divya Deshmukh to take her points tally to seven-and-a-half points to win the yellow metal.

Priyanka Nutakki, Divya Deshmukh and Thi Kim Phung Vo of Vietnam finished equal on six-and-a-half points but a better tie-break score helped Priyanka to finish as runners-up. Divya finished third and Vo was placed fourth.

Meanwhile, Grandmaster Rinat Jumabayev of Kazakhstan and Divya Deshmukh became the Asian Blitz champions in the open and women's categories respectively.

Deputy president of Asian Chess Federation Bharat Singh Chauhan and general secretary Hisham Al-Taher gave away the trophies and cash prizes.

Top-10 (Open): 1. R. Praggnanandhaa, 2. Harsha Bharathakoti, 3. B. Adhiban B 4. SL Narayanan, 5. Shamsiddin Vokhidov of Uzbekistan, 6. Sethuraman SP, 7. Karthik Venkataraman, 8. M. Pranesh, 9. Viani Antonio Dcunha, 10. Pranav Anand.

Women: 1. PV Nandhidhaa, 2. Priyanka Nutakki 3. Divya Deshmukh 4. Vo Thi Kim Phung of Vietnam 5. Kurmangaliyeva Liya of Kazakhstan, 6. Nguyen Thi Mai Hung of Vietnam, 7. Padmini Rout, 8. Aakanksha Hagawane, 9. Nisha Mohota, 10. Vantika Agrawal.

Results Round-9 (Open): B. Adhiban (6.5) drew with R. Praggnanandhaa (7); SL Narayanan (6.5) drew with Shamsiddin Vokhidov of Uzbekistan (6.5); Harsha Bharathakoti (6.5) drew with Karthik Venkataraman (6.5); SP Sethuraman (6.5) beat Koustav Chatterjee (5.5); M. Pranesh (6) drew with M. Shyam Sundar (6); Aravindh Chithambaram (6) beat Maksat Atabayev of Turkmenistan (5); Raja Rithvik R (5.5) drew with Karthikeyan Murali (5.5); Rinat Jumabayev of Kazakhstan (5.5) drew with Samant Aditya S (5.5); Bilguun Sumiya of Mongolia (5) lost to Abhimanyu Puranik (6); Viani Antonio Dcunha (6) beat Leon Luke Mendonca (5).

Results Round-9 (Women): Divya Deshkumh (6.5) drew with Nandhidhaa PV (7.5); Priyanka Nutakki (6.5) beat Padmini Rout (6); Soumya Swaminathan (5) lost to Vo Thi Kim Phung of Vietnam (6.5); Rakshitta Ravi (5) lost to Liya Kurmangaliyeva of Kazakhstan (6); Kiran Manisha Mohanty (5) lost to Thi Mai Hung Nguyen of Vietnam (6); Tania Sachdev (5) drew with Vantika Agrawal (5.5); Nomin Erdene Davaademberel of Mongolia (5.5) beat Srija Seshadri (4.5); Munkhzul Davaakhuu of Mongolia (4.5) lost to Eesha Karavade (5.5); Mary Ann Gomes (5.5) beat Saina Salonika (4.5); Cholleti Sahajasri (4.5) lost to Aakanksha Hagawane (5.5).