In a tournament of turnarounds and surprises, eighth seed Shanmukha Pulli, who was not expected to be in contention for the crown, emerged the champion of the 6th FIDE Rating Chess Championship on Thursday.
Starting the last round as the joint overnight leader with the favourite, Arnav Kheredekar, the 24-year old Pulli from Andhra Pradesh drew his last round quickly with Darsh Shetty and ended in a three-way tie at the top with the remaining results going his way.
Arnav lost to International Master Viramaditya Kulkarni while Aayush Shirodkar was beaten by Sauravh Khhedekar at the Russian Cultural Centre.
Kulkarni, Khhedekar and Pulli finished with a score of 7.5 out of nine. However, the tie-breaker favoured Pulli and he was declared the champion of the tournament. He bagged a trophy and a cash award of Rs 75,000.
The second and third prizes were won by Kulkarni and Khhederkar, who took home Rs 50,000 and Rs 30,000 respectively.
Arnav Kherderkar, who missed the championship by a whisker had to be content with fourth place and an award of Rs 20,000, while the fifth prize went to Darsh Shetty who bagged Rs 15,000.
The best female prize was awarded to Mysha Perwez and the best unrated player prize was won by Divyesh Bhattacharya.
A total cash award of Rs 3.00 lakh and 30 trophies were presented to the winners by Nishikant Shukla, Regional Manager of SBI Life, the title sponsor of the tournament.
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