Top seed Grandmaster R. Praggnanandhaa and Woman Grandmaster Nandhidhaa PV became the Asian champions in the Open and Women's sections respectively in the Asian Continental Chess Championship, which concluded here late on Thursday.
Praggnanandhaa started the final round with a lead of half-a-point over the nearest contenders and drew his ninth-round encounter with compatriot B. Adhiban in 63 moves to emerge as clear champion with seven points.
A six-way tie for the runners-up position with six-and-a-half points was resolved by tie break score and Harsha Bharathakoti finished ahead of the rest while B Adhian completed the Indian domination with a third-place finish. Narayanan SL, Vokhidov Shamsiddin of Uzbekistan, Sethuraman SP and Karthik Venkataraman had to be satisfied with fourth to seventh-place finish.
