Praggnanandhaa and Nandhidhaa becomes Asian champions

NEW DELHI: A six-way tie for the runners-up position with six-and-a-half points was resolved by tie break score and Harsha Bharathakoti finished ahead of the rest while B Adhian completed the Indian domination with a third-place finish. Narayanan SL, Vokhidov Shamsiddin of Uzbekistan, Sethuraman SP and Karthik Venkataraman had to be satisfied with fourth to seventh-place finish.

In the women's category, Nandhidhaa drew her final-round game against Divya Deshmukh to take her points tally to seven-and-a-half points to win the yellow metal.

Priyanka Nutakki, Divya Deshmukh and Thi Kim Phung Vo of Vietnam finished equal on six-and-a-half points but a better tie-break score helped Priyanka to finish as runners-up. Divya finished third and Vo was placed fourth.

Meanwhile, Grandmaster Rinat Jumabayev of Kazakhstan and Divya Deshmukh became the Asian Blitz champions in the open and women's categories respectively.

Deputy president of Asian Chess Federation Bharat Singh Chauhan and general secretary Hisham Al-Taher gave away the trophies and cash prizes.