NAGPUR: A day after they fared poorly, Nagpur’s
Divya Deshmukh
and
Raunak Sadhwani
regained form to post crucial victories and help
Super Kids
finish on top of the table in the nine-round rapid event of
Indian Chess.com League
.
The five-member Super Kids’ outfit including the city youngsters and talented GMs Nihal Sarin, Arjun Erigaisi and Narayan Srinath edged out favourites Chess Gurukul by just half point (29-28.5).
As per rules, the top-two finishing teams — Super Kids and team Gurukul — will now clash in the Super-Final with elimination rounds on Sunday.
After Divya failed to post a single win in five rounds played on Friday, the India youngsters were trailing at the fourth position. In the remaining four rounds, Nihal, Arjun, Raunak and Srinath remained unbeaten — with Divya collecting crucial 2.5 points by surprising higher-rated GMs Prithu Gupta and Swayams Mishra — to emerge as the top finishers with 29 points.
Maharashtra’s youngest GM Raunak regained the momentum by surprising higher-rated IMs Bhakti Kulkarni and Padmini Rout in the sixth and seventh rounds respectively. In the penultimate round, the 14-year-old forced senior Indian GM Shekhar Ganguly to split the point before playing out a draw with GM Aryan Chopra.
Other city masters Sankalp Gupta and Mrudul Dehankar representing Chess Pathshala of Amravati GM Swapnil Dhopade had a false start on Saturday. After losing two rounds, Sankalp surprised 19th ranked IM Tania Sachdev and held GM Shyam Sundar.
Mrudul, however, lost three rounds in the day but posted a stunning victory over 16th seeded GM Vaibhav Suri for her only win in the league. The Dhopade-led team finished ninth.
HOW THEY FINISHED
1. Super kids (29); 2. Chess Gurukul (28.5); 3. Desi Boys (25.5); 4. United India (22.5,15); 5. Undercover Agents (22); 6. Five Fighters (22); 7. Chess Gyaan (21); 8. Chess Thulir (18.5); 9. Chess Pathshala (18); 10. Cheeky Cheetahs (18).
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