NAGPUR: Much like the heroics of Raunak Sadhwani in the fastest format, Divya Deshmukh brought home a silver medal in the Asian Continental Women blitz chess championship at Kazakhstan.
The third seeded Divya, despite losing two games, finished the nine-round women's event with seven points for the silver. She finished half-point behind eventual champion Balabayeva Xeniya of Kazakhstan. Last year, Divya won a gold medal in the same event.
After a positive start, the reigning champion suffered a defeat in the third round and lost her seventh-round contest to Xeniya. Despite losing two rounds, the 18-year-old Divya fought her way back and recorded victories in all the remaining seven games to finish second.
On her way to yet another medal in the Asian meet, Divya defeated Kazakhstan's Kairbekova Amina, Assel Serikbay and Mariya Kholyavko, compatriot Sakshi Chitlange, Singapore's WGM Gong Qianyun, Alinasab Mobina of Iran and Uzbekistan's Khamdamova Afruza.
The 2310 Elo Divya gave a performance rating of 2302 and added 8.6 points to her tally. A total of 31 players including four International Masters, four Women Grandmasters and seven WIM's from 18 countries participated in the women's section of the tournament.
In the Open section, Indian GM Pranav Venkatesh shared the top position with 7.5 points. Based on the tie-break score, Pranav finished second.
