India's R Vaishali wins gold in Asian Blitz Chess Championship

Chennai, May 22: India's R Vaishali won the women's title with eight points from nine rounds in the Asian Continental Blitz Chess Championship in Chengdu, China, on Sunday (May 21).

She was at her best in the Blitz event and won seven games and posted two draws in the nine-round event.

Vaishali drew her final round game against Uurtsaikh Uuriintuya of Mongolia to finish half-a-point ahead of Iran's Sarasdat Khademalsharieh and clinch the gold medal.

Her compatriot Padmini Rout finished third with seven points after a last round win over Yuxin Song of China.

The Chennai player with an ELO rating of 2203 had finished third in the Asian Championship event on Friday.

The other Indians, however, couldn't make much of an impression with Soumya Swaminathan (5.5 points) taking the 12th spot and Mary Ann Gomes, who finished fourth in the classical format, settled for the 16th spot.

In the open section, Tamil Nadu's Vr Aravind Chithambaram finished fourth with a tally of seven points. He won six games, drew two and lost one.

M R Lalith Babu (6.5 points), Vidit Santhosh Gujrathi (6.5 points) and B Adhiban (6 points) finished seventh, eighth and 10th respectively.

Gujrathi had won the bronze medal in the Asian Championship (Classical format) yesterday and in the process qualified for the World Cup 2017 to be held in Georgia in September.

Surya Shekar Ganguly ended up at 22nd place and was followed by Sandipan Chanda and S P Sethuraman in 24th and 25th spots respectively.

PTI