Sadhwani’s Armenia Eagles win Chess Pro League crown

By Paritosh Pramanik :

IT WAS well past Sunday midnight. Citizens had resigned to their cosy beds after enjoying the high-voltage run-fest in the IPL game between Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab. However, there was one Nagpurian who still had his ‘Champagne on Ice’. The celebration was kept on hold. Fourteen-year-old Raunak Sadhwani, concentration personified, was glued to his computer well past midnight playing the final of Chess Pro League, representing Armenia Eagles. Minutes past 1 am, Nagpur’s only chess Grandmaster Raunak Sadhwani jumped from his chair and pumped his fist, not once but on several occasions. This continued for a few seconds, as could be seen in the 46-second video tweeted by chess.com.

After three hours of on-line battle, Armenia Eagles stunned strong contenders and defending champions St Louis Archbishops 9.5-6.5 to win the chess.com organised on-line Chess Pro League title. Armenia Eagles, comprising GM Praham Maghsoodloo, GM Haik Martirosyan, GM Tigran Petrosyan and GM Sadhwani, shocked mighty St Louis Archbishops, who had top rated United States players including World No 2 Fabiano Caruana, World No 8 Wesley So, World No 14 Dominguez Perez Lenier and Junior No 2 Xiong Jeffery, to clinch the crown. Sadhwani had done his bit by playing two draws in the final. He split points against Lenier. In the next game he was going neck and neck with Caruana but made a mistake in a time scramble and then lost to Wesley. But in his last game, as instructed by team manager, Sadhwani managed to hold world junior champion Jeffery. His performance and a point from two draws helped his side stay ahead of their rivals.

Other favourable results meant Armenia Eagles won the summit clash with a difference of three points. The winners got richer by USD 20,000 which would be equally distributed among the team members. In the whole PCL 2020 season Raunak performed with a whopping rating performance of 2700+ which in itself is an achievement. “Overall I played very well with a whopping performance of 2,700 + against world’s best players. Armenia Eagles Manager showed strong faith in my game and I proved myself and met their expectations,” Sadhwani told ‘The Hitavada’ after the exciting title win. Sadhwani said, he played to a strategy planned by the team management.

“Team manager (Artak) instructed me to play solid and so I played accordingly. I drew my last game against Junior World No 2 and World Junior Champion Xiong Jeffery. The team strategy worked well and finally we outplayed super strong St Louis Archbishops,” said Sadhwani. On his personal performance in the competition which had world’s best participating Sadhwani said, “Overall I played very well with a whopping performance of 2700+ against world’s best players,” added the student of Centre Point School, Katol Road. Sadhwani thanked Armenia Eagles management for selecting him despite having several top players at their disposal. “I was given a golden opportunity by Armenian team. They have so many strong players but still they gave me the chance. Coach Zaven trusted my abilities.

I learnt how to handle pressure while playing against these strong guns. I want to work more and stretch my game to a much higher level. That’s what my next goal is,” revealed Sadhwani, who according to reports, is only Indian player qualified for this grand event. Despite winning the on-line title, Sadhwani said he prefers on board tournaments. “Of course, I like over the board tournaments more but this type of on-line leagues are also very good. What else one wants during this pandemic situation? At least I have my opponents and I have to prepare against them, the same I do in my on board tournaments,” explained the fourth youngest Grandmaster of India. “Overall, it was a very good experience which will definitely be useful for me in this type of future events,” concluded Sadhwani who is ninth youngest Grandmaster of world.