11 year old CM Raunak Sadhwani of Maharashtra, India emerged victorious at the 1st IIFL Wealth International Junior U-13 Chess Championship. Raunak, who started the event as the second seed, scored 7.5/9 and remained unbeaten throughout the course of the event.
The 9th and final round of the event turned out to be a massively exciting one. While CM Raunak Sadhwani and FM Mohammad Fahad Rahman won their games convincingly, the top-board clash between CM Gukesh and CM Aditya Mittal (the sole leader after round 8) went all the way down to the wire. Just when Aditya seemed to be coasting away to victory, he was unable to find the exact moves and the game ended in a draw. In the end, as many as 3 players viz. Raunak Sadhwani, Aditya Mittal and Mohammad Fahad Rahman finished with 7.5/9. Thanks to his better tie-break score, Raunak clinched the coveted title while Mohammad Fahad Rahman and Aditya finished 2nd and 3rd respectively.
The chief attraction of the event was a never-seen-before prize fund for a junior tournament of 7.5 Lacs INR. The winner – Raunak Sadhwani – went home richer by 1.5 Lacs INR.