Indian Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram staged a late surge to clinch the bronze medal in the World Junior (u-20) chess championship in Travisio, Italy, on Saturday.
The 18-year-old defeated Chinese IM Xu Xiangyu in the 11th and final round to jump to joint top spot with a total of 8.5 points. However, overnight leader Aryan Tari of Norway kept things tight against GM Jorden van Foreest to settle for a draw and take the title on better tie-break score.
Manuel Petrosyan took silver after winning his final round against defending champion Kirill Alekseenko.
The third place finish for Aravindh was commendable given the fact that the 18-year-old had lost his opening game Fide Master Pavle Dimic. He then won four games in a row and ended his campaign with three straight wins including the one over Alekseenko.
Congratulations to @aryan_tari for winning 2017 World Junior Championship! Also big congrats to @Rameshchess, 3 Indian in top 7, including Aravindh tying for 1st (3rd on tiebreaks)! @ChessClubLive @FIDE_chess @EuropeEchecs @NorwayChess @chessdom pic.twitter.com/qCSTVyLqZA
— Susan Polgar (@SusanPolgar) November 25, 2017
Aravindh’s compatriot R Praggnanandhaa finished fourth following a draw against German GM Rasmus Svane in the final round.
The 12-year-old, who holds the record of being the youngest IM in the world, was in title hunt till the penultimate round and had missed a golden opportunity to grab the initiative on Friday when he failed to push home the advantage in the 10th round due to time pressure against IM Semen Lomasov.
GM Karthikeyan Murali finished seventh with a total of 8 points.