Indians WIM Savitha and Rahul win Asian Junior titles
Women's champ Shri Savitha
Indians V.S. Rahul and Shri Savitha clinched the Open and Women titles respectively of the Asian Junior Chess Championship 2021 held concluded after seven days at the Citrus Hotel in Waskaduwa.
Indian V.S. Rahul drew with Orini Gholami of Iran to finish with 7½ points out of 9 games, to remain unbeaten and claim the Open title with the International Master (IM) title and in a Grand Master (GM) standard. Rahul came up with a great performance, leading from the start to the end to win the title in style.
On the way he beat Kosala Amarathunga, Isara Dahanayake, Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage, all three from Sri Lanka and three Indian IMs Vardaan Nagpal, G.B. Harshavardan and Mitrabha Guha. Yet he drew three games against Susal de Silva of Sri Lanka, IM Shrihari Ragunandan of India and Iran’s Gholami in the last round to achieve the title.
Though she lost the top place in the penultimate round Women IM Shri Savitha of India drew her last game with Chanindi Attanayake of Sri Lanka and earned the title convincingly to win a Women’s GM norm with the gold medal and the trophy.
She scored 7 points with five wins against Gimashi Weeratunghe, Niklesha Tharushi, and Oshini Gunawardena of Sri Lanka, Al Maamari of UAE and WIM K. Priyanka of India and recorded draws against Melika Mohammadi, Anousha Mahdian, both from Iran, Sanudula Dahamdi and Chanindi Attanayake both Sri Lankans to remain unbeaten.
V.S. Rahul won the Open
After a poor start, the top seed IM Mitrabha Guha recovered well to place second with 7 points while IM G.B. Harshavardhan became third with 6½ points. The fourth place was secured by
India’s K. Priyanka and Iran’s Anousha Mahdian tied at second place with 6½ points. But Priyanka won the Silver Medal with better tiebreaker and Anousha had to settle in with the bronze medal. Anousha earned a WIM norm as well.
The Asian Junior Chess Championships 2021, conducted by the Asian Chess Federation (ACF) was organised by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka (CFSL) with a total of 54 players, 32 in Open and 22 in Women participating. The event was held progress from December 17 to 23 at the Citrus Hotel in Waskaduwa according to the Swiss System in 9 rounds.
The awards ceremony was held under the patronage of Luxman Wijesuriya, the President of CFSL and the Vice President of ACF, Hisham Al Taher, ACF General Secretary Casto Abundo.