Nagpur: Indian Grandmaster Nagpur’s Raunak Sadhwani, despite without a coach, produced another fantastic performance at the international arena. The Nagpur-based talented chessmaster Sadhwani finished second best in Chess Stars Invitational Round Robin, Rapid and Blitz Chess Tournament at Azerbaijan Pavilion, in Moscow, Russia, recently.
Sadhwani’s performance is laudable as he is without a coach and a sponsor to finance his international tours. It was a strong Invitational Round Robin Event of 10 players (5 men and 5 women) where they competed against each other in faster time control known as Rapid (15 mins + 10 seconds increment per move) and Blitz (3 minutes + 2 seconds increment per move). The final ranking was a combination of Rapid and Blitz points together.
Gold Rate
26 July 2025
In the rapid event, Raunak scored 6.5 points from nine rounds with five wins, three draws and a loss. He secured second place, gaining 14 ELO points. In the blitz event, GM Sadhwani scored 11 points from 18 rounds which had a creditable 10 wins, two draws and six losses. This performance helped him secure third place. Overall, he accumulated 17.5 points (6.5 Rapid + 11 Blitz) and on the basis of that he was placed second overall. Sadhwani termed it a strong event where some of the world’s best participated.
On his way to registering a podium finish in the faster format of 64 squares, Raunak defeated experienced Russian GMs Sergey Karjakin, Vladislav Artemiev, Evgeny Tomashevsky, women’s world No. 1 Hou Yifan from China, and held Azerbaijan’s super GM Radjabov Teimour. In the rapid format, the 2611 Elo Raunak won five games, drew three boards, and suffered a defeat to finish the tournament collecting 6.5 points — just half a point behind Russia’s 2723 Elo GM Vladislav Artemiev. On his way to finish behind Vladislav (7 points), Raunak earned a total of 14.3 international points while delivering a performance rating of 2727 Elo.
“It was a quite strong event where the best players were competing against each other. I am glad that I was able to finish on the podium despite the tough start in the Blitz section. The Rapid event went quite well for me, however on the first day of Blitz it was a nightmare where I lost a few back to back games and things were looking quite challenging. But I have only hope left and that was to play my best on the last day and try to finish in the top 3,” recalled Sadhwani about his performance.
“I called my parents back at home and they motivated me, stood with me like a rock. Their support helped me to believe that I can still finish on the top by playing my best chess,” he narrated. “The Day 2 of Blitz was an altogether different and wonderful day for me. I won six back to back games and succeeded in my planning. “After the last round, I received a message from my parents saying – ‘real fighter- we are proud of you’. On Day 1 in Blitz, I just managed three points out of nine games but on Day 2 I collected eight points out of nine games to take my tally to 11.5 from 18 games,” Sadhwani mentioned.
Raunak’s parents Bharat and Heena were elated with their son’s performance but said it is very difficult for them to help Raunak play tournaments abroad without any sponsor. They revealed that he is also without any coach.
