Nagpur’s Divya Wins World Chess Rapid Team Bronze | Nagpur News
Nagpur: Divya Deshmukh clinched bronze medal in the FIDE World Rapid Team Championships, which concluded in Hong Kong on Friday. The 21-year-old Nagpur Grandmaster was a member of Hexamind Chess Team, comprising Alireza Firouzja, Levon Aronian, Anish Giri, Volodar Murzin, Vidit Gujrathi and Kateryna Lagno.In the 12th and final round, Hexamind outclassed Birdie and Friends 3.5-2.5 to share the top position, collecting 18 points with eventual champions Dragon Chilling, led by former world champion Ding Liren of China, and Arjun Erigaisi’s Team MGD1. Based on the tie-break score of 611.5, Hexamind finished third, with Divya bringing home the team bronze medal. On the sixth board, Divya played seven of the 12 games and collected 4.5 points. On Friday, Divya held D Harika and Chinese GM Lei Tingjie while guiding her team to win the ninth and 10th rounds, respectively, and share the top position. After Aronian outclassed China’s Wei Yi on the second board, Divya played out a solid 71-draw against Lei Tingjie as Hexamind drubbed Dragon 4-2.
Nagpur’s Divya Deshmukh celebrates with American World No.6 Levon Aronian after winning the 10th round against eventual champions Dragon Chilling in the World Rapid Team Championships in Hong Kong on Friday (Pics FIDE)
While Divya rode on the heroics of her 19-year-old Russian teammate Volodar Murzin’s unbeaten run to clinch the team bronze medal, Nagpur’s first Grandmaster Raunak Sadhwani missed the podium finish but delivered a “solid performance” while leading Team Chessnut Nova on Board 1.The 21-year-old Raunak played all 12 rounds while facing the world’s best Grandmasters on the top board. Raunak won three games, drew seven rounds and suffered two defeats to finish the 12-round tournament, collecting 6.5 points. The 2576 Elo Raunak gave a performance rating as high as 2650 and earned 11.9 international rating points.Of the four rounds played on the concluding day, Raunak scored 2.5 points while forcing Azerbaijan No. 1 GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to split the points in the final round.Satisfied with his performance, Raunak said, “I delivered a decent solid performance overall. Playing on the top board against such strong opposition is always challenging. I am happy with some of my games, I could have converted a few better positions. There are always areas to improve, particularly in capitalising on key moments and maintaining consistency.”He added, “It’s definitely a morale-boosting performance. Playing and holding players of that stature gives a lot of confidence. It reassures me that I can compete with the very best, but at the same time, it also motivates me to push further and convert such opportunities into wins. The biggest positive is the confidence of performing on the top board against elite players. It was a great learning experience, and I take away a lot of positives in terms of preparation, resilience and handling pressure situations.”
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