Abhijeet Gupta wins Commonwealth Championship

Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta won the Commonwealth Chess Championship after settling for a draw with Indian national title holder G Akash in the 11th and final round that concluded here at the Boardwalk.
Putting in a solid performance right through, Gupta scored nine points out of a possible eleven and had the best tiebreak score to win the gold medal in the championship that also incorporated the South African International open.
Gupta was tied for the top spot along with top seed Sergey Fedorchuk of Ukraine and Sergei Tiviakov of Holland and had the best Bucholz among the three toppers to not only win the Commonwealth but also the overall title.

Expectedly, it was a clean sweep of medals in the open section and veteran Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua got the silver medal while Grandmaster M R Lalith Babu won the bronze.
Amongst the women, WGM Soumya Swaminathan won the silver medal while national women's champion Mary Ann Gomes won the bronze. The gold in this category went to International Master Jovanka Housak of England.
The Indians also clean swept the junior section with G Akash winning the gold, Sahaj Grover getting the silver and Rakesh Kulkarni ending with the bronze medal. Kulkarni also won the South African open blitz championship held during the course of the championship.

Gupta stayed in his elements right through starting out with as many as six victories on the trot including the scalp of fellow Indian Lalith Babu. The Indian followed it up with draws against Fedorchuk, Tiviakov and Barua and defeated Sahaj Grover in the penultimate round to regain the lead.