Raunak Sadhwani triumphs at Serbia Open 2023 Masters
GM Raunak Sadhwani scored an unbeaten 7.5/9 to win Serbia Open 2023 Masters. He finished a half point ahead of the competition. GM Cristobal Henriquez Villagra (CHI) and IM Arystanbek Urazayev (KAZ) scored 7/9 each. They were placed second and third according to tie-breaks. Raunak drew against both podium finishers and gained 12.4 Elo rating points. GM Pranesh M is the only other Indian to make a top ten finish. He scored 6.5/9 to finish ninth. The total prize fund in the Masters section was €23500. The top three prizes were €5000, €3500 and €2500 along with a trophy each. 17-year-old Soham Bhattacharyya is the highest untitled finisher. He scored 6/9, gained 141.6 Elo rating points to secure his maiden IM-norm. 12-year-old Vihaan Dumir scored a perfect 7/7 to win the Beginners section. All photos are from official site unless stated otherwise.
Soham Bhattacharyya scores maiden IM-norm, Vihaan Dumir clinches Beginners section with a perfect 7/7
GM Raunak Sadhwani headed into the final round with a half point sole lead 7/8. IM Arystanbek Urazayev (KAZ) and GM Cristobal Henriquez Villagra (CHI) were the only two players trailing him by a half point at 6.5/8 each. Raunak drew against Arystanbek and Cristobal shared the point with the top seed GM Maksim Chigaev. Thus, Raunak became a clear champion 7.5/9. Cristobal and Arystanbek were placed second and third according to tie-breaks 7/9 each.
Raunak - Or Bronstein, Round 4
GM Raunak Sadhwani (2608) launched a beautiful and creative attack against IM Or Bronstein (ISR, 2448). First he brought his king to f3 to clear the path for the e2-rook 34.Kf3 Re8 35.g6 Rf6 36.gxh7+ Nxh7 37.Rg2 Bd8 38.Ng6 Rf7 39.h6 Bf6 40.Rh5 Bd4 41.Nh4 opening the g-file for his rook. Black was left without a choice. He sacrificed an exchange 41...Rxe3+ 42.Nxe3 Qe8 43.Nf1 and White won the game in another ten moves.
Despite getting a walk over in the first round, Soham Bhattacharyya (2146) scored 5/8 in the next eight games to secure his maiden IM-norm. The teenager defeated GM Sinisa Drazic (SRB), IM Georgios Mitsis (GRE), IM Or Bronstein (ISR) and drew against GM Jose Gabriel Cardoso Cardoso (COL).
Bronstein - Soham, Round 7
Soham had already launched a brutal attack f5-f4-f3 from 17th to 19th move. He punctuated it with a nice finish 36...Nf4+! 37.gxf4 exf4 38.Qd1 Bd4 39.Nb5 Rxf2+ 40.Kh1 Bxb5 41.cxb5 g3 42.Rxg3 fxg3 and it was over.
12-year-old Vihaan Dumir (1564) finished a full point ahead of the competition. He gained 28.34 Elo rating points in the process. The total prize fund in the Beginners section was €1000. The top three prizes were €250, €200 and €150 along with a trophy each.
A total of 230 players including 15 GMs, 26 IMs, 7 WGMs and 9 WIMs took part in the Masters section from 33 countries across the world. A total of 113 players took part in the Beginners (<1700) section. The tournament was organized by Serbia Chess Federation from 16th to 24th July 2023 at Metropol Palace hotel in Belgrade, Serbia. The nine-round Swiss league tournament had a time control of 90 minutes/40 moves + 15 minutes for whole game, 30 seconds increment from move no.1 in the Masters section. The Beginners section time control was 60 minutes for entire game + 30 seconds increment per move.
Replay all Masters games
Final standings in Masters
| Rk. | SNo | Name | Typ | sex | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | w | we | w-we | K | rtg+/- | ||
| 1 | 3 | GM | Sadhwani, Raunak | IND | 2608 | 7,5 | 0 | 48,5 | 53 | 7,5 | 6,26 | 1,24 | 10 | 12,4 | |||
| 2 | 2 | GM | Henriquez Villagra, Cristobal | CHI | 2618 | 7 | 0 | 49,5 | 54 | 7 | 6,18 | 0,82 | 10 | 8,2 | |||
| 3 | 21 | IM | Urazayev, Arystanbek | KAZ | 2427 | 7 | 0 | 45,5 | 49,5 | 7 | 5,10 | 1,90 | 10 | 19 | |||
| 4 | 10 | GM | Avila Pavas, Santiago | COL | 2499 | 6,5 | 0 | 50 | 55 | 6,5 | 5,43 | 1,07 | 10 | 10,7 | |||
| 5 | 5 | GM | Sonis, Francesco | ITA | 2568 | 6,5 | 0 | 48,5 | 53 | 6,5 | 6,86 | -0,36 | 10 | -3,6 | |||
| 6 | 4 | GM | Cheng, Bobby | AUS | 2572 | 6,5 | 0 | 48 | 52,5 | 6 | 5,53 | 0,47 | 10 | 4,7 | |||
| 7 | 11 | IM | Parkhov, Yair | ISR | 2484 | 6,5 | 0 | 46,5 | 50,5 | 6,5 | 5,96 | 0,54 | 10 | 5,4 | |||
| 8 | 1 | GM | Chigaev, Maksim | FID | 2621 | 6,5 | 0 | 46 | 51 | 6,5 | 6,96 | -0,46 | 10 | -4,6 | |||
| 9 | 9 | GM | Pranesh, M | IND | 2507 | 6,5 | 0 | 46 | 51 | 6,5 | 6,40 | 0,10 | 10 | 1 | |||
| 10 | 8 | IM | Subelj, Jan | SLO | 2513 | 6,5 | 0 | 44 | 48,5 | 6,5 | 7,04 | -0,54 | 10 | -5,4 | |||
| 11 | 6 | GM | Petrov, Nikita | MNE | 2559 | 6,5 | 0 | 44 | 48 | 6,5 | 6,62 | -0,12 | 10 | -1,2 | |||
| 12 | 44 | IM | Shahil, Dey | IND | 2333 | 6,5 | 0 | 42 | 45,5 | 6,5 | 5,57 | 0,93 | 10 | 9,3 | |||
| 13 | 46 | FM | Kalogridis, Antonios | GRE | 2328 | 6,5 | 0 | 41 | 44,5 | 6,5 | 6,01 | 0,49 | 20 | 9,8 | |||
| 14 | 26 | IM | Perunovic, Miodrag | SRB | 2405 | 6,5 | 0 | 41 | 44 | 6,5 | 6,38 | 0,12 | 10 | 1,2 | |||
| 15 | 24 | FM | Tsvetkov, Andrey | RUS | 2412 | 6 | 0 | 47 | 52 | 6 | 5,40 | 0,60 | 10 | 6 |
Final standings in Beginners
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | ||
| 1 | 5 | AIM | Vihaan, Dumir | IND | 1564 | 7 | 0 | 27 | 27,5 | |
| 2 | 28 | Militonyan, Movses | ARM | 1254 | 6 | 0 | 28 | 31 | ||
| 3 | 37 | Maddipati, Srihas | USA | 1147 | 6 | 0 | 26 | 28,5 | ||
| 4 | 89 | Mitic, Vladimir | SRB | 0 | 6 | 0 | 23,5 | 25 | ||
| 5 | 45 | Bat-Amgalan, Batsaikhan | MGL | 0 | 6 | 0 | 22 | 24 | ||
| 6 | 103 | Skoko, Stefan | SRB | 0 | 5,5 | 0 | 26,5 | 28,5 | ||
| 7 | 2 | Ilic, Zvezdana | SRB | 1683 | 5,5 | 0 | 25,5 | 28,5 | ||
| 8 | 95 | Panic, Viktor | BIH | 0 | 5,5 | 0 | 22,5 | 24,5 | ||
| 9 | 8 | Lalicki, Todor | SRB | 1510 | 5 | 0 | 31 | 33,5 | ||
| 10 | 13 | Velikova, Gabriela | BUL | 1479 | 5 | 0 | 29,5 | 33,5 |
