Asian Youth Chess Championship 2018: Mrudul Dehankar, Arpita Mukherjee, Salonika Saina win gold

What's the story

In a day-long girls' U-14 rapid chess event, Mrudul Dehankar won her first gold medal in the Asian Youth Chess Championship. The event was held in Thailand on Sunday, where Salonika Saina also won G16 and Arpita Mukherjee wins G18 rapid titles.

In case you didn't know

The Asian Youth Chess Championship is a tournament that includes all the youth players under age of 18 years. Thailand hosts this year's championship event. Young players from Asian countries take part in different categories in both single and group games.

Along with Mrudul, Divya Deshmukh and Sankalp Gupta were also representing India in the Asian meet, which involves different formats like rapid, classical and blitz.

The heart of the matter

Mrudul Dehankar, competing in the U-14 category in the Asian Youth Chess Championship, created a bit of personal history, as she notched up her first ever gold medal. She had narrowly missed out on the top prize previously, finishing second in the 2014 event. However, Mrudul finally showed that she has it in her to clinch the gold medal.

In the opening round, she defeated Kamalidenova Meruert of Kazakhstan but lost to Nguyen Nugan of Vietnam in the third round. However, she got back on track in the final round against Rakshitta Ravi, giving a tremendous performance, as she won gold.

It was also a big moment for Salonika Saina, as she won the G16 category rapid title and Arpita Mukherjee for her G18 rapid title win in the chess championship.

What's next?

After the initial events, all the city masters have to prepare for the standard format, which will begin on Monday. While Mrudul will start as the fifth seed, she will certainly be one of the favourites to win the title.

Author's take

Mrudul Dehankar, a brilliant chess master, has the full capability to win the next formats and make the country proud. Let's hope that she turns out to be one for the future.