Divya Deshmukh became champion in Chess Championship, won gold medal

India’s Divya Deshmukh on Sunday emerged champion in the women’s classical event of the Asian Continental Chess Championship here. In this match, she has defeated Mary Ann Gomes. Mary Gomes was the runner-up of the competition. The 17-year-old Divya drew with Kazakhstan’s Xenia Balabayeva in the ninth and final round. With the match being drawn, Divya Deshmukh topped the table with 7.5 points to become the championship winner.

Along with becoming the winner of this tournament, Divya Deshmukh was awarded the gold medal. Runner-up Mary got the silver medal. Let us inform that Divya Deshmukh has retained the national women’s chess crown for the second time in a row at the beginning of the year itself.

Mary secured second place

In this match, Mary also played a draw in the final round. She got 6.5 points after the second round and was in second place. Divya had easily defeated WIM Merurt Kamalidenova (Kazakhstan) in the final round. Indian player Sakshi Chitlange finished seventh with 5.5 points. PV Nandidha (5 points) and Aashna Makhija (5) were among the other Indians who finished 13th and 14th respectively.

In the open event, GM Abhimanyu Puranik, who was in medal contention, was going into the final round. Only managed to draw against Azamat Utegaliev. He finished fourth in scoring with 6.5 points. Indian GM Arjun Erigaisi, who started as the top seed, finished sixth with 6.5 points and SP Sethuraman finished seventh. GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov of Uzbekistan secured the top position.

Won the title last year as well

Please tell that 17-year-old Divya was the winner in the 48th National Women’s Chess Championship. This year also for the second year in a row he is at the top of the 64 category. Divya had won the senior national title in Bhubaneswar last year.