Grandmaster Raunak Sadhwani crowned U-20 world junior rapid chess champion

Grandmaster Raunak Sadhwani won the FIDE World Junior Rapid Chess Championship in Sardinia, Italy. Raunak scored 8.5 over 11 rounds to win the Championship ahead of Arseniy Nesterov of Russia, who scored 8. Raunak became a grandmaster at the age of 13. He is the ninth youngest player in history and the fourth youngest Indian to be awarded the title.

Top seed Raunak’s campaign had a bad start. In the 2nd and 5th rounds, he lost to very low ranked players. Could score only three points till five rounds. However, he became the winner by defeating Tobias Koele of Germany in the final round.

Raunak earned a spot in the 2021 Bullet Chess Championship after winning a qualifier event. He played alongside world-class bullet players like GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja, Levon Aronian, Daniel Naroditsky, and more. He won a bronze medal with the Indian team at the 2022 FIDE Olympiad.

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