By Paritosh Pramanik
INDIA’S one of the youngest Grandmasters Raunak Sadhwani is making his Eurpoean Tour a memorable one.
After the silver medal winning performance at the Sliver Lake Open Tournament in Serbia last month, the Nagpur lad bettered his show by clinching gold medal at the 40th St Veiter Jacques Leman International Open A Group Championship 2021 at St Viet an Der Glan in Austria on Saturday.
Fifteen-year-old Sadhwani stamped his authority with some incredible performance to claim the crown.
To add icing to the cake, Sadhwani was congratulated by none other than Bollywood star Farhan Akhtar.
After his title winning performance, Sadhwani twitted “Enjoyed my tournament victory by watching #toofan. It was an amazing movie, the story was brilliant. Great performance by @FarOutAkhtar and @SirPareshRawal looking forward to some more movies
like this!!”
Farhan replied: Congratulations Raunak and thank you so much..best wishes always.”
In the Austrian competition, top seed Sadhwani logged 8.5 points out of possible nine to wrest the coveted title. Sadhwani finished on the podium with a rating performance of 2720 and also gained important 12 ELO rating points.
He once again kept his slate clean winning eight games and drawing only one.
On his way to the title, Sadhwani defeated Austrians Wallner Dieter Dr, Sucher Johannes Mag, Croatian WIM Berke Ana, Austrian Fide Master Matt Fabian, Croatian GM Rogic Davor, Austrians Kristoferitsch Daniel, FM Sandhofner Florian and Sv Asvo St Veit. He drew his only game against Saric Ante of Croatia. The competition saw 132 participants with maximum 92 taking part from host Austria. There were 21 chess masters from Germany, nine from Slovenia and five from Croatia. Sadhwani was the only participant representing India. Switzerland had two contestants while Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Ireland, Latvia and Serbia one each. Sadhwani was happy with his second podium finish in Europe.
“I am super happy with my performance. Winning a tournament, being a champion, is always so special...a nice feeling,” said Sadhwani.
The Grandmaster did not lose his focus in the entire tournament despite a hiccup in the previous competition. “I kept focusing on the game at hand and I want to continue in the same way.
“I want to keep myself motivated for the upcoming tournaments. I just want to play and enjoy this beautiful game of 64 squares,” said an elated Sadhwani. Sadhwani was rewarded with a prize of 1200 Pounds, a glittering and a Jacques Leman watch for his stellar performance.
This was Sadhwani’s third on the board competition since COVID-19 lockdown disrupted all the sporting activities around the globe.
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