NILAY Kulkarni ruled the roost as Nagpur players dominated the fifth Vidarbha-level online blitz chess competition organised by Power Chess Academy and was held on Sunday. The competition was held in memory of Kamlabai Ramrao Gorle and was conducted through lichess.org platform. Players from Vidarbha only were eligible to take part in the competition. In the final round, eventual winner Kulkarni got the better of Nirmaan Pohane of Chandrapur on the top board. Kulkarni, who had a clear half point more than the second paced Akshay Patil, was too good with the white pieces.

 

Patil (7) also registered a win with white pieces over Ayush Ramteke (6.5). Though Suhan Deshpande also ended the tourney with 6.5 points, he was adjudged fourth behind Ramteke. Nagpur girls Shraddha Bajaj and Lakshita Rathod won the best female prizes. The tournament was conducted under the supervision of IA Deepak Chavan, Swati Kumbhalkar and Roshan Sahare. In all, 42 players from Amravati, Gadchiroli, Chandrapur and Nagpur participated in the nine-round tournament. RESULTS (final round): Nilay Kulkarni (7.5) bt Niraman Pohane (6), Akshay Patil (7) bt Ayush Ramteke (6.5), Suhan Deshpande (6.5) bt Sumedh Ramteke (5.5), Shraddha Bajaj (6) bt Dishank Bajaj (6), Deep Deshmukh (6) bt Aniruddha Meshram (5), Archit Wagh (6) bt Vidhi (5), Sanskar Gaigore (5.5) bt SK Laha (4.5).