Mumbai, May 17 (IANS) Karnataka’s 20-year-old Avani Udipi emerged triumphant in the All India Chess Masters tournament, a FIDE-rated classical chess tournament which ended in Mumbai at the Mumbai Chess Centre, Russian House on Saturday.

Avani, who picked up the top prize of Rs 30,000, finished with an identical seven points to Maharashtra’s second-placed Mayuresh Parkar in the well-contested tournament. Parkar secured Rs 20,000 for his second place.

Avani, whose FIDE rating was 1669 before the start of the event, was declared the winner based on her superior tiebreaker score ahead of the 1757 rating of Mayuresh Parkar.

Chief arbiter of the tournament, Ajinkya Pingale, noted that Avani finished with a tie-break score of 36.5 in contrast to Parkar’s tie-break score of 32, which was the decisive factor in the Karnataka girl finishing on a high and being named victor.

The tournament was contested over eight rounds and witnessed exciting battles with the players giving it their all in the course of the tourney. Acharya’s consistency against all her opponents held her in good stead. A notable achievement saw the under-10 contestant Parv H Hakani finish in eighth place with 6.5 points.

That the level of competition was fierce can be gauged by the fact that six contestants wound up with 6.5 points to finish from third to eighth.

Earlier on Friday, Yash Kapadi and Darsh Shetty retained their joint lead in the event after their highly anticipated Round 7 encounter ended in a hard-fought draw.

Kapadi, playing with the white pieces on the top board, engaged in a tightly contested battle with Shetty that went to the wire. Following the draw, both players continue to lead the tournament standings with 6.5 points each.

Results:

Eighth and final round:

Mayuresh Parkar (ILO 1757) 1 beat 0 Yash Kapadi (ILO 1879); Darsh Shetty (ILO 1833) 0 lost 1 Avani Udipi (ILO 1669); Reyaansh Venkat (ILO 1697) 0.5 drew with 0.5 Om Gada (ILO 1814); Daksh Jagesia (ILO 1882) 0.5 drew with 0.5 Parv Hakani (ILO 1671); Kush Agarwal (ILO 1850) 1 beat 0 Dhruv Muthe (ILO 1674).

–IANS

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