Gujrathi, Vaishali bag bronze medals in Asian Chess tourney

India's Vidit Santhosh Gujrathi and R Vaishali settled for third spot in the open and women's sections after the ninth and final round of the Asian Chess Championship in Chengdu, China, today.
GM Gujrathi, with an ELO rating of 2687, drew with Yangi Yu of China in his final game to finish with 6.5 points.
China's GM Wang Hao took the top spot with seven points and was followed by Bu Xiangzhi.
Gujrathi had moved to the spot after the eighth round yesterday, but a draw in the final round put paid to his title aspirations and he had to settle for the bronze medal.

B Adhiban ended the tournament in eighth place, logging six points and was followed by fellow Indian Surya Shekhar Ganguly, also on the same number of points. They were followed by S P Sethuraman in 11th place with 5.5 points and Deep Sengupta in 13th spot.
They were followed by Aravind Chithamabram (17th), Karthikeyan Murali (21st) and Sandipan Chanda (28th). They all got five points each.

In the women's event, Vaishali, with a tally of 6.5 points, secured the third spot behind Vietnam's Vo Thi Kim Phung (7.5 points) and Uzbekistan's Nakhbayeva Guliskhan (7 points).
The Chennai player (ELO rating 2272) posted an impressive win with black pieces over Ngueyen Thi Thanh An of Vietnam in the ninth round to take her tally to 6.5 points and earned the third place.

Vaishali's compatriot Mary Ann Gomes finished fourth, with a score of six points.
Among the other Indians, Padmini Rout and WGM Swati Ghate finished seventh and eighth respectively.
On 5.5 were four more Indians - Nisha Mohota, Soumya Swaminathan, Kiran Monisha Mohanty and P V Nandhidhaa - who took 11th to 14th places.