Gukesh, Savitha win gold medals in World Cadets Chess Championship

International Master Gukesh D and Savitha Shri B won gold medals in U-12 Open and girls category respectively at the World Cadets Chess Championship in Spain.

The Championship, which ended at Galicia on Thursday, was held for the age groups U-8, U-10 and U-12, girls and Open.

A record number of 851 participants from 86 federations took part in the Championships. There were 542 players in open section and 309 players in girls' section.

Gukesh with 10 wins and a loss comfortably won the title by a huge margin of 1.5 points.

Playing white against Razafindratsima Timothe of France, Gukesh opted for the Double fianchetto variation and ruthlessly attacked on the K-side and mated his opponent in 54 moves.

The 2nd and 3rd places were won by Murzin Volodor of Russia and Chasin Nico of USA.

Savitha of Tamil Nadu effortlessly won the gold in U-12 girls category with 8 wins and 2 draws.

Facing the Chigorin defence, she comfortably drew her final round in 38 moves against the Russian Zavivaeve Emilia who finished 3rd.

The second place went to Omonova Umida of Uzbekistan.

Indian players Tanisha B S and Mahi Amit Doshi finished with 7.5 and 7 points respectively.

Apart from this, India stood second with two gold medals for best performance, while China with two golds and a bronze and USA with a gold, a silver and two bronze medals took the 1st and 3rd place respectively.