Gawai clinches maiden NDCA online blitz title
| Date :02-Jul-2020 |
Siddhant Gawai ponders over his next move during the sixth online blitz chess championship.
Sports Reporter :
PARTICIPATING for the first time in the competition, Siddhant Gawai made most of it to clinch his maiden online title, the other day. Gawai stunned one and all as he remained undefeated in nine rounds to clinch the Nagpur District Chess Association organised 6th Online Blitz Chess Competition with 8.5 points The meet was organised through the server of lichess.org.
A student of St Vincent Pallotti School, 12-year-old Gawai had a shaky start as he was held by unseeded Ayush Ramteke in the second round. But from there on, the rookie recorded wins in all the remaining rounds to bag 8.5 points from nine games. On his way to first NDCA online title, Siddhant shocked Arena Grand Master (AGM) and fourth edition winner R Siva Subramanian, Prerak Darvekar, Sumedh Ramteke and Arush Chitare. He also got the better of Sadanand Mahajan, Abhishek Ikhar, Aditya Bodkhe and Harsh Nachankar. Sumedh Ramteke finished second with 7.5 points.
Arush Chitare ended third with 6.5 points while Siva Subramanian finished fourth and first timer Prerak Darvekar finished fifth. There was a dip in the participation in the sixth round as only 29 players registered themselves. Barring the second edition which saw maximum 55 participants, the tournament has seen gradual decline as 44 players participated in third, 38 in fourth, 32 in fifth and 29 in sixth edition. This tournament is being conducted under the supervision of IA Swapnil Bansod, IA Pravin Pantawane and FA Umesh Panbude.