Young Indian Grandmaster Raunak Sadhwani wins Spilimbergo Open

Spilimbergo: Young Indian Grandmaster Raunak Sadhwani on Sunday emerged winner in the 19th Spilimbergo Open chess tournament with seven points from nine rounds. The 15-year old Sadhwani (Elo 2579) remained undefeated in the tourney, notching up five wins and four draws. Seeded fourth, the Indian faced five GMs in the event and beat Oskar Wieczorek of Poland and drew his games against the four others. His wins came against Italian Joshuaede Cappelletto, Aron Pasti of Hungary, Lorenzo Lodici of Italy and France’s Loic Travadon. He played out a draw in the ninth and final round against GM Adam Kozak of Hungary. Sadhwani and Italian GM Pier Luigi Basso finished level on seven points after nine rounds but the Indian emerged on top on the basis of a better tie-break score. The Indian GM had last month won the St Veiter Jacques Lemans Open international rating tournament in Austria. Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali finished 14th with six points and was the best among the women. She recorded four wins apart from four draws and a loss. Among her wins were one over higher-rated GM Michele Godena of Italy. Over 120 players participated in the tournament.