This is an archive article published on May 16, 2025

Nihal Sarin settles for silver at Asian individual championship, qualifies for FIDE World Cup 2025

An inferior tie-break score kept Nihal Sarin on second as the No.1 seed from India settled with a silver medal in the Asian individual chess championship.

2 min readUpdated: May 16, 2025 10:32 AM IST

India's Nihal Sarin in action. (PHOTO: Anna Shtourman/FIDE)

Nihal Sarin did everything he was asked to on Thursday. Going into the final round, the joint-second in the standings, Nihal, beat the overnight leader, Iran’s Bardiya Daneshvar — who was sitting with a strong 7.0/8 — to put up a strong fight for the gold medal. However, an inferior tie-break score kept him on second as the No.1 seed from India settled with a silver medal in the Asian individual chess championship played in Al Ain (UAE).

Nihal didn’t have the best of starts. He stumbled in the fifth round, scoring only 3.0 points in the first five rounds. However, the Kerala wonderboy made amends swiftly to win his last four rounds, confirming his qualification for the upcoming FIDE World Cup, set to happen in India.

Five other Indians — Pa. Iniyan, R. Raja Rithvik, S.L. Narayanan, M. Pranesh and G.B. Harshvardhan — also qualified for the World Cup 2025.

.@NihalSarin clinches the 🥈 silver medal at the Individual Asian Chess Championship! ♟️

Next stop: FIDE Chess World Cup 2025, representing India on the global stage! 🚀🇮🇳#S8ULFTW #GameShuru #Gameशुरु pic.twitter.com/UWSBVgpRco

— S8UL (@S8ulesports) May 15, 2025

Bardiya Daneshvar bagged gold even after losing the top board clash against Nihal. Daneshvar had a tremendous outing in Al Ain, winning six out of the first eight rounds, which eventually helped him topple the Indian. Uzbekistan’s Shamsiddin Vokhidov earned a bronze.

Four Indians, Pa. Iniyan, R. Raja Rithvik, S.L. Narayanan and M. Pranesh all finished with the same points as Vokhidov — 6.5/9 — but the tie-break scores denied them from getting any medals.

An Indian in the women’s section saw a similar fate in the results. India’s Vantika Agrawal came agonisingly close for a podium finish, but her tie-break score — the worst among all four who finished joint first — saw her finish fourth, just outside the medal contention. She beat Mongolia’s Bat-Erdene Mungunzul in the ninth (final) round to finish on equal terms with Mungunzul and two other players — Kazakhstan’s Xeniya Balabayeva and China’s Yuxin Song — on 7.0/9 points.

Yuxin Song grabbed the gold medal while Mungunzul finished second for silver and Balabayeva bagged the bronze medal.

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