Savitha Shri, 15, won a bronze medal
Indian WIM B Savitha Shri, 15, won a bronze medal on Wednesday in the women’s event of the FIDE World Rapid Championship in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
She was seeded 36th, but she came in third with an impressive eight points from 11 rounds.
In a star-studded field, the teen, who was on 6.5 points at the end of the eighth round, scored 1.5 points to win the tournament.
Savitha’s chances of finishing in the top two were hurt when she lost in the ninth round to Zhansaya Abdumalik of Kazakhstan.
In Round 10, she defeated Singapore’s Qianyun Gong and drew with Kazakhstan’s Dinara Saduakassova in the final round.
After Viswanathan Anand and Humpy, Savitha Shri became the third Indian to win a medal at the world rapid championship.
Koneru Humpy, India’s top player and winner of a gold medal at the Asian Games
She had a chance to win a medal on day two, but despite scoring eight points, she had to settle for sixth place.
The teen won bronze thanks to a better tie-break score, even though Savitha, Humpy.
A former world Rapid champion, and two other competitors finished with eight points.
Savitha had radiated brilliantly on Tuesday, posting four continuous triumphs.
“Thank you, Savitha!” In a play-off, Tan Zhongyi of China defeated Saduakassova to win the title.
Five Indians competed in the women’s competition, and 15 Indians took part in the Open competition.
Arjun Erigaisi, a 19-year-old Indian Grandmaster, finished fifth in the Open event, which was won by world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen.
Erigaisi won by nine points over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) in the thirteenth and final round.
Vladimir Fedoseev, Vladimir Artemiev, and Richard Rapport (Hungary) also earned nine points
After being in joint lead with Artemiev and Vincent Keymer (Germany) on nine points.
Carlsen defeated Iran’s Parham Maghsoodloo in the final round to emerge clear victor with 10 points.
Nihal Sarin of India finished in 10th place with 8.5 points, while Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, a fellow Indian, came in 15th with the same number of points.
Experienced Indian GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly scored 8.5 focuses and wound up twentieth while teenaged GM Raunak Sadhwani (8 focuses) agreed to 33rd spot.
Gujrathi, who had a mixed tournament, won a memorable match against Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan).
The defending champion. But he lost to Keymer in the 12th round, which hurt his chances of winning the event.
Padmini Rout finished 38th in the women’s competition with six points.
While GM D Harika finished 39th with the same number of points. Tania Sachdev finished 50th with 5.5 points.