India’s R Vaishali won gold in the women’s title with eight points from nine rounds in the Asian Continental Blitz Chess Championship in Chengdu, China, on Sunday.
She won seven games and posted two draws in the nine-round event. PM Narendra Modi took to his twitter handle to congratulate the champion.
Congratulations to R Vaishali for winning the gold medal at Asian Blitz Championship. We are proud of her accomplishment: PM @narendramodi
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) May 21, 2017
The young girl from Chennai drew her final round game against Uurtsaikh Uuriintuya of Mongolia to finish half-a-point ahead of Iran’s Sarasdat Khademalsharieh to bag the gold medal.
With an ELO rating of 2203, Vaishali finished third in the Asian Championship event on Friday.
The other Indian players couldn’t give a much impressive performance, with Soumya Swaminathan (5.5 points) taking the 12th spot and Mary Ann Gomes, who finished fourth in the classical format, settled for the 16th spot.
In the open section, Vr Aravind Chithambaram finished fourth. He won six games, drew two and lost one.
M R Lalith Babu (6.5 points) and B Adhiban (6 points) finished seventh and 10th respectively.
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi won the bronze medal in the Asian Championship (Classical format) on Saturday, and qualified for the World Cup 2017 to be held in Georgia in September.
