Bhubaneswar: Soundarya Kumar Pradhan of Odisha won Gold Medal in the Team Rapid VI B1 Chess and also secured a Silver Medal in the Individual Rapid VI B1 Chess event at the Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China.
Soundarya achieved silver in the individual event by scoring 5.5 points from 7 rounds which included 5 wins and 1 draw. It wasn’t a great beginning for him as he suffered an early setback in the second round in the form of a loss from Dinh Tuan Son Vietnam.
Soundarya quickly brought himself back in the track and scored 4 victories and a draw in the remaining 5 games. He was in a must-win situation in the final round against Abdullayev, Amrillo from Uzbekistan (1926)who happened to be the top seed of the event. Playing with black pieces, Soundarya opted for his most preferred French defense and decimated his opponent with a king side pawn storm.
India also managed to win gold medal by scoring 11.5 points out of a possible 14 and remained 2 points clear of the second placed Iran.
After being out of medal contention in the classical format, In a dramatic turn of event, India made a great recovery in the Rapid format by bagging team gold, individual Gold, Silver, and bronze. Along with the Silver of Soundarya, Darpan Inani (Gujurat) and Ashwin Makwana (Gujurat) clinched Gold and Bronze respectively.
The tournament was played in the swiss system in Hangzhou, China, from 26 to 28 October 2023
