Vignesh Advaith Vemula Becomes 2026 Asian Junior Blitz Champion

by Devansh Singh - 18/08/2026

Vignesh Advaith Vemula scored 6/7 points to become the 2026 Asian Junior Blitz Champion. Vignesh Vemula, Viresh Sharnarthi, and Nandish VS all scored 6/7 points, but better tiebreaks helped Vignesh clinch the title. Vignesh suffered a loss in the 4th round but scored three consecutive wins and defeated GM Mayank Chakraborty in the important penultimate round. The tournament was organised on 17th August at ITC Maratha, Mumbai. Photos: Tushar Damor

The Indian Trio

After the penultimate round, FM Madhvendra Pratap Sharma of India and FM Akhilbay Imangali of Kazakhstan were co-leading with 5.5/6. In the final round, both of them suffered a loss: Nandish VS defeated Akhilbay Imangali, and Viresh Sharnarthi defeated Madhvendra Pratap Sharma. Vignesh won his game on board 3 against Hommadov Amanmuhammet to clinch the Asian Junior Blitz Championship.

Champion: Vignesh Advaith Vemula

Runner-up: Viresh Sharnarthi

Top 3 (L to R): 3rd Nandish VS, 1st Vignesh Vemula and 2nd Viresh Sharnarthi

Madhvendra Pratap Sharma suffered a loss in the final game and has to settle for 5th place

Vignesh lost against Akshay Borgaonkar, but he came back and won the title and increased his rating by 98.4 points

Replay all Games

Final Ranking after 7 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	23	IM	Vignesh Advaith Vemula,	U20	IND	2036	6	6	24	27
2	11	FM	Sharnarthi Viresh,	U20	IND	2191	6	6	21	24
3	15	FM	Nandish V S,	U20	IND	2146	6	5	24	28
4	5	IM	Borgaonkar, Akshay	U20	IND	2284	5,5	5	25,5	29,5
5	9	FM	Madhvendra Pratap Sharma,	U20	IND	2239	5,5	5	25,5	29
6	7	FM	Akhilbay, Imangali	U20	KAZ	2261	5,5	5	25	28
7	8	IM	Apoorv Kamble,	U20	IND	2249	5,5	5	23,5	27,5
8	65	AIM	Vivaan Sardana,	U20	IND	1766	5	5	23	25,5
9	4	CM	Kurbandurdyyev, Shageldi	U20	TKM	2288	5	5	22	25
10	83		Pratyush Kumar,	U20	IND	1504	5	5	20,5	24

Details

Photo Gallery: Here

Organising Committee

Trophies for the winners

Games in action

All winners of 2026 Asian Junior Rapid and Blitz

Venue: ITC Maratha, Mumbai

Such a beautiful venue for this amazing tournament

Playing Conditions

The tournament is played according to the FIDE Laws of Chess, using electronic clocks.
Standard: 90 minutes for the whole game with a 30-second increment per move from move 1. Forfeit time is 30 minutes.
Rapid: 15 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move from move 1.
Blitz: 3 minutes plus a 2-second increment per move from move 1.
Per FIDE regulations, players from the same federation may be paired against each other in the last round.

Titles and Awards

A minimum of 5 federations per category and 10 participants is required for direct titles in Standard chess (see the FIDE Handbook). Direct titles are awarded for Standard chess per the FIDE Handbook:

Gold medalists are awarded a GM norm and the International Master (IM) title (for women, a WGM norm and the Woman International Master (WIM) title). Players scoring the same number of points as the champion also receive the IM/WIM title.
The silver & bronze medal winners are awarded the IM/WIM norm in addition to the FIDE Master (FM)/Woman FIDE Master (WFM) title.

Minimum Ratings (for immediate award): IM 2200 · WIM 2000 · FM 2100 · WFM 1900