Nihal Sarin wins blitz event in Asian Continental Chess Championship
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14-year old Indian Grand Master Nihal Sarin has secured a win at the Asian Continental Chess Championship in Xingtai in the blitz event. The tournament also saw Karthikeyan Murali, SP Sethuraman, Srinath Narayanan and Abhijeet Gupta qualify for the World Cup on the basis of their respective results.
Sarin, who was recently in the news after he crossed the 2600 Elo points mark to become the third youngest player to achieve it, scored eight points from nine rounds of the event which meant that he ended the tournament with a lead of a full point. While Vietnam GM Le Quang Liem secured the second spot, Indian Srinath Narayanan was placed third on the table.
When asked about how he assessed the result Srinath replied, “I am delighted with the bronze. The win over Alireza in the final round was my best,” reported PTI.
In more good news, four other Indians players managed to qualify for the World Cup in the open section. Karthikeyan Murali, SP Sethuraman, Srinath Narayanan, and Abhijeet Gupta did enough to make the cut for the World Cup which will take place in Russia later in the year. Sarin, though, was not able to book a place for the Russia showdown after he finished tied sixth before managing just an 11th place finish in the tie-break.
On the Women's front, WGM R Vaishali had the best result among all of her compatriots with a fifth place finish thanks to her six points from nine rounds.
