Without a coach and sponsor GM Sadhwani shines in Moscow

 

 

Indian Grandmaster city’s Raunak Sadhwani, despite without a coach, produced another fantastic performance at the international arena. The Nagpur-based talented chessmaster Sadhwani finished second best in Chess Stars Invitational Round Robin, Rapid and Blitz Chess Tournament at Azerbaijan Pavilion, in Moscow, Russia, recently. Sadhwani’s performance is laudable as he is without a coach and a sponsor to finance his international tours. It was a strong Invitational Round Robin Event of 10 players (5 men and 5 women) where they competed against each other in faster time control known as Rapid (15 mins + 10 seconds increment per move) and Blitz (3 minutes + 2 seconds increment per move). The final ranking was a combination of Rapid and Blitz points together. In the rapid event, Raunak scored 6.5 points from nine rounds with five wins, three draws and a loss. He secured second place, gaining 14 ELO points. In the blitz event, GM Sadhwani Scored 11 points from 18 rounds which had a creditable 10 wins two draws and six losses. This performance helped him secure third place.

 

Overall, he accumulated 17.5 points (6.5 Rapid + 11 Blitz) and on the basis of that he was placed second overall. Sadhwani termed it a strong event where some of the world’s best participated. “It was a quite strong event where best players were competing against each other. I am glad that I was able finish on the podium despite of the tough start in the Blitz section. “The Rapid event went quite well for me, however on the first day of Blitz it was a nightmare where I lost few back to back games and things were looking quite challenging. But I have only hope left and that was to play my best on the last day and try to finish in the top 3,” recalled Sadhwani about his performance. “I called my parents back at home and they motivated me, stood with me like a rock. Their support helped me to believe that I can still finish on the top by playing my best chess,” he narrated.

 

“The Day 2 of Blitz was an altogether different and wonderful day for me. I won six games back to back games and succeeded in my planning. “After the last round, I received message from my parents saying – ‘real fighter- we are proud of you’. On Day 1 in Blitz, I just managed three points out of nine games but on Day 2 I collected eight points out of nine games to take my tally to 11.5 from 18 games,” Sadhwani mentioned. Raunak’s parents Bharat and Heena were elated with their son’s performance but said it is very difficult for them to help Raunak play tournaments abroad without any sponsor. They revealed that he is also without any coach. “Raunak is now World No 4 in juniors section (Classical Chess). He is without any private sponsor, without any support from state and central government, without any support from the chess federation. “In this competitive world, its extremely difficult to compete against elite players without an experienced coach. At present he is not having any trainer and working on his own due to no financial support for advanced coaching,” they lamented.