TWO city players — GM Sankalp Gupta and Siddhant Gawai — finished among top four in the MLA Cup All India Open International Rapid Rating Chess Tournament 2024 that concluded at St Vincent Palloti School, Besa Pipla Road, on Sunday. As many as six players ended their campaigns with eight points in their respective kitty but when the tie-breaker rule was applied Tamil Nadu’s GM Narayanan Srinath emerged as the winner. Another top contender West Bengal’s IM Arghyadip Das finished runner-up. Nagpur’s GM Sankalp Gupta and Siddhant Gawai took the third and fourth spots in the final rankings. ICF’s GM RR Laxman and FM Bagwe Gaurang, representing Maharashtra, ended fifth and sixth respectively. Srinath took home a huge trophy and a top cash reward of Rs 51,001. Das (35,001), Gupta (21,001) received cash prize as well as trophies while Gawai (11,000), Laxman (10,000) and Bagwe (9,000) had to be content with cash rewards only. Nagpur’s duo of CM Vaibhav Jayant Raut and Patil Priyanshu ended creditable 8th and ninth to make it to the top ten of the tourney.

 

In the Rating 1601-1800 category, as many as eight Maharashtra players including a whopping six from Nagpur, found themselves among top ten. Anshul Nanwani won the title while Nagpur’s trio of Shaunak Badole, Dishank Sachin Bajaj and Sai Sharma followed him at the second third and fourth spots respectively. Other city players were Saurabh Lokhande, Mayur Gupta and Ayush Ramteke. The top five players scored an identical seven points apiece. In Rating 1401-1600 category, Nagpur players took the first three places. While Santosh Gaikwad emerged winner with seven points, Rashmika Maringanti and Mradul Yadav took the next two positions in that order with 6.5 points each. In unrated group, Nagpur’s Shubham Sharma finished runner-up. City’s YM Shamkuwar took the fourth spot in the Best Veteran 55+ category. City’s Shraddha Bajaj turned out to be the Best Female player. Among Best Nagpur Players, FM Akash Thakur finished atop with seven points.

 

Anshul Mahant and Lakshita Kranti Rathod won the best places in Best Under-15 group for boys and girls respectively. Young Vritika Krushna Game did the city proud by emerging at the top of table in the U-13 girls group. Sahejveer Singh Maras and Anvi Vinit Hirde reigned supreme in the U-11 boys and girls groups. Sanskar Jambhulkar and Swara Rahul Gandhi topped the charts in U-9 boys and girls category. Arishka Ingole was the best in U-17 age group. Rev Fr Joseph Koovely, Principal St Vincent Palloti School was chief guest of the prize distribution function. Sushant Jumde, Tournament Organising Secretary; Nilesh Channawar, Tournament Organising Committee Member; Pravin Thakare, Chief Arbiter of tournament were present on the dais. Dipak Chavan conduced the function. Amit Temburne, Manthan Shende, Shrikant Bagade, Vaibhav Kumbhalkar and others worked hard to make the event a huge success.