Woman Grandmaster Tania Sachdev struck form and won the silver medal in the Asian Continental Women's Rapid Chess Championship that concluded here today.
Scoring six points out of a possible seven, Tania won five and drew two games to tie for the top spot along with Tan Zhongyi of China but the Indian had to settle for the silver medal due to inferior tiebreak score.
The Indians took the major chunk of medals - winning four out of a possible six in the open and women's section. Like Tania, Sandipan Chanda also proved his true mettle in the faster version of the game and won the silver medal with his best tiebreak score in the open section. Grandmaster Debashish Das also found himself on the podium in this section winning the bronze.
The open section was won by Nguyen Ngoc Troung Son of Vietnam who scored six points out of a possible seven and then there was a long six-way tie for the second spot in which Chanda and Das emerged with the best tiebreak score.
In the women's section Grandmaster D Harika won the bronze medal. After playing in the open section in the main event, Harika decided to play the faster variant in the eves' only section.
Tania had a woeful start in the just concluded main event when she tallied just 1.5 points from her first four games. Then in the next five, she recovered a lot of ground winning four and drawing one to finish eighth.
Her good form continued in the rapid section too and her victory over Padmini Rout in the final round netted her the silver medal.
"In rapid I was playing far better as I had probably less pressure than in normal chess. The key was to take decisions quickly and I succeeded in getting some right moves. After the main event, I was just hoping to play some good games and this medal is a huge boost," said Tania.
Sandipan Chanda was in his elements too after he got off to a good start. Chanda only lost to Troung Son in the penultimate round and a final round draw with Zhou Jianchao of China gave him the silver medal. Debashish Das started with a first round loss but then scored 5.5 points in the last six games.
In the blitz championship however, no Indian could win a medal as former world champion Zhu Chen of Qatar dominated the women's section while Main event winner A R Salem Saleh of UAE made it a memorable double winning the gold in the open section.
Rapid Medal winners Open: Nguyen Ngoc Troung Son (Vie) - Gold; Sandipan Chanda (Ind) - Silver; Debashish Das (Ind) - Bronze Women: Tan Zhongyi (Chn) - Gold; Tania Sachdev (Ind) - Silver; D Harika (Ind) - Bronze.
Blitz Medal Winners open: A R Salem Saleh (UAE); Zhang Zhong (Sin); Pascua Haridas (Phi) Women: Zhu Chen (Qat); Zhai Mo (Chn); Wang Jue (Chn).
