Grandmaster Sadhwani takes Armenia Eagles into Chess Pro League final
| Date :27-Sep-2020 |
By Paritosh Pramanik :
Sadhwani is the only Indian playing in this prestigious competition
FOURTH youngest Grandmaster of India and first from Nagpur, Raunak Sadhwani once again proved why he is being rated so high by chess legends of the world. The ninth youngest Grandmaster of the world Sadhwani helped his side Armenia Eagles storm into final of the Pro Chess League 2020, being held online on chess.com. The Pro Chess League 2020 was suppose to be held at Norway but due to COVID-19 pandemic, organisers decided to hold it online. Sadhwani is the only Indian playing in the prestigious competition. The meet carries total prize money of 40,000 dollars.
The winners will be richer by 20,000 dollars. Sadhwani played some splendid chess and defeated top rated players of the world to take his side to the final. The summit clash will be held on Sunday. In the semi-final played on Friday night, Armenia Eagles defeated Canada Chessbrahs 9-7 to book date with mighty St Louis Archbishops who ousted China Pandas 11-5 in the other last four battle. GM Sadhwani registered win over World No 10 and Dutch No 1 Anish Giri. He managed to hold World No 6 Alexander Grischuk, Croatian No 1 Ivan Saric and Norway’s No 2 Aryan Tari. He collected 2.5 points out of possible four that helped Armenia Eagles edge out Canadian team in the all play all knock-out competition.
The tournament has a time control of 10 minutes with increment of two seconds. Sadhwani’s team comprised GM Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran, GM Haik Martirosyan and GM Tigran Petrosian both of Armenia. Canada Chessbrahs consisted of GM Alexander Grischuk of Russia, GM Anish Giri of the Netherlands, GM Ivan Saric of Croatia and GM Aryan Tari of Norway. 14-year-old Sadhwani was happy with his performance and was satisfied with his contribution that helped his team reach final. “I played some very high quality chess. I am very happy with my contribution to my team by scoring 2.5/4 points against some elite players.
This result has boosted my confidence and it feels great that my hard work is paying off,” Sadhwani told ‘The Hitavada’. “I want to thank Armenian team for giving me this wonderful opportunity and showed strong faith in my game,” he added. Sadhwani was confident of a good show in the final. “I am very excited to play the final on Sunday against the strong St Louis Archbishops team which has some very talented and world famous players.” The team comprises World No 2 Fabiano Caruana, World No 8 Wesley So, World No 14 Dominguez Perez, Leneir and Junior No 2 Xiong Jeffery, all from the United States.