NAGPUR: Raunak Sadhwani successfully switched from Over The Board (OTB) classical style to blitz online chess championship on Friday. He will again shift focus to the OTB format from Saturday.
Two days after winning silver medal in the nine-round Silver Lake Open standard chess, 15-year-old Raunak played out three dominating hours online on the fastest format of the sport and qualified for the quarterfinals of the Junior Speed Chess Championship. He scored a thumping 18-point victory over Lithuania's GM Pultinevicius Paulius in the main knockout event of the tournament.
Of the 28 games that the two Grandmasters played in three different time-control segments, Maharashtra's youngest GM Raunak outplayed his higher ranked rival by dominating the pre-quarterfinal contest 23-5. Maharashtra's youngest GM won 21 games, drew four boards and suffered three losses for his 23 points as against just five scored by Paulius. The online tournament is being played on the platform of chess.com.
The three time controls include nine games each in the five and three-minutes frames, and a 10-game bullet round of one-minute each.
Playing faster and better than Paulius in the five-minute segment, Nagpur's lone GM outscored his Lithuanian counterpart 7.5 to 1.5. Raunak stretched his lead further to nine points by winning the three-minute portion 6-3. With the speed at which he played his earlier games, it wasn't a surprise when Raunak dominated the bullet segment. And he scored the biggest margin of the match by winning the one-minute portion 9.5-0.5.
Raunak's quarterfinal tie will be played at a later date as the city GM will again switch focus to the OTB classical format from Saturday. He is participating in the Masters group of the 2021 Serbia Open scheduled to begin at Metropol Palace hotel, Belgrade. At 2555 Elo, Raunak is seeded 26th in the seven-day, nine-round Swiss-system event and in the opening round he will defend with black pieces against Austria's FM Kruckenhauser Arthur.
