Raunak makes short work of Short to emerge Challenger champion

Nagpur: Maharashtra’s youngest Grandmaster Raunak Sadhwani dominated the shorter format to take former World Championship Challenger Nigel Short in stride and emerge champion on the penultimate day of their Challenger Match in the state chess festival at Naivedhyam hall, Koradi road, on Monday.
Raunak took an unassailable lead of nine points to emerge champion with one day, two rapid, and four blitz rounds still to go in the tournament. India no. 3 Vidit Gujrathi — despite losing three blitz games — maintained a four-point lead against eight-time Russian champion Peter Svidler.
On Sunday, both Raunak and Vidit took a three-point lead from their respective Classical games. In the two rapid games, Raunak drew the first and outplayed Short with his white pieces in the second round. With a draw and a win, Raunak stretched his lead over Short by five points. Reputed for his prowess in the fastest format, Raunak blanked Short in all the four blitz rounds to take the title-winning lead of nine points.
“Overall, I am happy with my performance, but I could have scored 0.5 points more in the Classical. In the blitz today, I played high-quality chess. It was a fantastic day for me as I was calculating fast and accurately today, so I am pretty pleased,” the 18-year-old Raunak told TOI.
On the Challenger format, Raunak said, “I look forward to finishing the event well tomorrow. I hope these matches keep happening regularly. It will be really good for chess, and we will gain experience of playing in matches.”
Vidit started well with two victories over Svidler in the rapid to stretch his lead to seven points. Svidler turned things in the blitz where he won three rounds and drew a board. Despite a poor show in the blitz, Vidit maintained a four-point lead in the match. “If I had managed to convert the second rapid game into victory, tomorrow it would have been an even fight,” Svidler said.