Shaunak faced Arun Kumar in the final round of this eight-round tournament played on Sunday at NDCA Hall, DNC Sports Complex, Congress Nagar. Both the players gave a tough competition to each other but in this game of checkmate, Shaunak dominated and won. With this, he scored a total of seven points. On the basis of better tie break, he defeated Sahejveer Singh Maras (7 points) and secured first place. Sahejveer, who finished second, defeated Mayank Hedau (6) in the final round while Shraddha Bajaj (6.5) defeated Vishwaditya Awasthi (5.5) to secure third place.
After the final round, five players had 6 points each but on the basis of tie-break score, Mayank Hedau finished fourth, Palash Nagdevate fifth, Arun Kumar sixth, Kaushal Barat seventh and Alok Fadnavis eighth. Vishwaditya finished ninth while Videsh Gharpure (5.5) secured 10th position. A total of 77 players including 32 ELO rated players of different age groups participated in the tournament. A total cash prize of Rs 6,500 was distributed among the top 10 players by chief arbiter IA Praveen Pantawane, assistant arbiter SNA Shrikant Bagde and Dinesh Kokate.
--