All India Chess Masters: Karnataka's Avani Udipi Emerges Triumphant

Karnataka's 20-year-old Avani Udipi emerged triumphant in the All India Chess Masters tournament, a Mumbai FIDE rated classical chess tournament.

Avani, who picked up the top prize of Rs 30,000 finished with an identical seven points to Maharashtra’s second-placed Mayuresh Parkar in the well-contested tournament. Parkar secured Rs 20,000 for his second place.

Avani whose FIDE rating was 1669 was declared winner based on her superior tiebreaker score ahead of the 1757 rating of Mayuresh Parkar. Chief arbiter of the tournament, Ajinkya Pingale noted that Avani finished with a tie-break score of 36.5 in contrast to Parkar's tie-break score of 32 which was the decisive factor in the Karnataka girl finishing on a high and being named victor.

The tournament was contested over eight rounds and witnessed exciting battles with many of the city's top players giving it their all in the course of the tourney. Acharya's consistency against all her opponents held her in good stead. A notable achievement saw the under-10 contestant Parv H Hakani finish in the eighth place with 6.5 points.

That the level of competition was fierce can be gauged by the fact that six contestants wound up with 6.5 points to finish from third to eighth.

Results:

Mayuresh Parkar (ILO 1757) 1 beat 0 Yash Kapadi (ILO 1879)

Darsh Shetty (ILO 1833) 0 lost 1 Avani Udipi (ILO 1669)

Reyaansh Venkat (ILO 1697) .5 drew with .5 Om Gada (ILO 1814)

Daksh Jagesia (ILO 1882) .5 drew with .5 Parv Hakani (ILO 1671)

Kush Agarwal (ILO 1850) 1 beat 0 Dhruv Muthe (ILO 1674)