Vaibhav Raut emerged champion in the 128th Babasaheb Ambedkar Birth Anniversary Open Rapid Chess tournament at DTC Hall, Divisional LIC Office here on Sunday.
Vaibhav secured highest 7.5 points to win the title. Yash Dhoke finished second with seven points. Both R Shivasubramaniam and Oojasv Goswami were tied up at 6.5 points but on the basis of better tie-break scores, former was declared third.
In the eighth and final round, Vaibhav outwitted Suhan Deshpande on the top board to race ahead of others. Yash defeated Mayur Shelke to take his points tally to seven on the second board. AGM Shivasubramanian outclassed Umesh Wasnik on the third board to finish in the top three.
Senior divisional manager, LIC of India MC Joshi, was the chief guest and distributed the prizes. Satish Wankhede, working president, western zone, Nalanda Kamble, president, welfare association, Shardul Ramteke, Snehashri Borkar, Suhas Kamble, Rajesh Wahane, Deepak Gaikwad, Pramod Borkar, Pravin Pantawane, Shrikant Bagde and Swati Kumbhalkar were present in the occasion.
Final ranking: 1. Vaibhav Raut (7.5, 38.5), 2. Yash Dhoke (7, 41), 3. R Shivasubramaniam (6.5, 39), 4. Oojasv Goswami (6.5, 33.5), 5. Vivaan Saraogi (6, 37.5), 6. Suhan Deshpande (6, 37), 7. Mayur Shelke (6, 34), 8. Anzar Khan (6, 33.5), 9. Vinaykumar Gajbhiye (6, 32), 10. Sumedh Ramteke (6, 32).
