Arnav Kherdekar of Mumbai emerged champion of the SMCA Chess School organized 1st All India FIDE Rating Open Chess Tournament 2024, played at the Russian House, Peddar Road, Mumbai.
Arnav Kherdekar receiving the trophy
Kherdekar and compatriot IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni finished with 7.5 each at the end of the eighth and final round on Wednesday evening. Kherdekar with a better progressive tie-breaker score of 41.25 as compared to Kulkarni’s 36.75 was declared the champion.
On the second board, Kherdekar (1846) defeated Darsh Shetty (1798), also of Mumbai, to stay in contention for the top position.
On the top board, Kulkarni (2185) maintained his fine winning streak and defeated Darsh Shetty (1968), but his inferior progressive score of 36.75 saw him finish in second position.
Yash Watarkar (1963 of Pune finished in third position with seven points. Watarkar defeated beat Yuti Patel (1580) was in third position with 7 points.
Results – top-10 (final round): IM Vikramaditya (7.5) beat Atharv Soni (6) 1-0;
Arnav Kherdekar (7.5) beat Darsh Shetty (6) 1-0;
Yash Watarkar (7) beat Yuti Patel (6) 1-0;
Guruprasad Kulkarni (6.5) drew Sanjeev Mishra (6.5) 0.5-0.5;
Kartik Kumbhar (6.5) drew Kshaunish Jaiswal (6.5) 0.5-0.5;
AIM Saikat Nath (5.5) lost Ishaan Tendolkar (6.5) 0-1;
Akash Wadhwani (6) drew Om Gada (6) 0.5-0.5;
Dhruv Muthe (5) lost Saurabh Kulkarni (6) 0-1;
Yash Kapadi (6) beat Parv Hakani (5) 1-0;
Shubham Baviskar (6) beat Deepak Soni (5) 1-0.