Generally after winning a tournament in a dominating fashion, players tend to relax. That's not what GM Leon Luke Mendonca did. After clinching 27th Hit Open 2023 on the previous day, the teenager went on to defeat FM Domen Tisaj to score a perfect 9/9. Leon, who has just turned 17, performed at 3196, which earned him 26.4 Elo rating points. This is Leon's second consecutive tournament triumph this month: he remains undefeated after winning 38th ChessOrg Festival Bad Woerishofen 2023 on 11th March.
Leon Luke Mendonca has won the 2023 Hit Open with a round to spare after scoring eight wins in as many games. In the penultimate round, the teenager defeated GM Nigel Davies in just 19 movies. The veteran grandmaster from England neglected the safety of his king and paid a heavy price for it. The youngster from Goa turned 17 years old just ten days ago. | Photo: Nova Garica Chess Club
GM Leon Luke Mendonca continues his good form from World Junior 2022. He seized his opportunity against Mongolia no.3 GM Tsegmed Batchuluun to become the sole leader 3/3. GM Karthikeyan Murali missed a great opportunity to score a win against IM Koustav Chatterjee. In the Women's section, IM Tania Sachdev won her game using tactics against WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty. WIM Saina Salonika handed Mongolia no.2 woman, IM Davaademberel Nomin-Erdene her second defeat of the event. Leon vs S L Narayanan, Pranav Anand vs Praggnanandhaa, Priyanka Nutakki vs Tania and Vantika vs Nandhidhaa are some of the interesting top board pairings
The World Junior Championships in Sardinia ended on Saturday with a double success for players from Azerbaijan. In the Open, the 18th seed IM Abdulla Gadimbayli (photo) finished with 8.0/11 and shared first place with four other players but won the tournament on tiebreak. In the "Girls" section WGM Govhar Beydullayeva scored 8.5/11 to share first place with Assel Seribay from Kazakhstan but also won because of her better tiebreak-score. | Photos: Przemek Nikiel
The second leg of the MPL Indian Chess Tour, sponsored by the Play Magnus Group, took place on June 2-6 as a 16-player single round-robin. Aravindh Chithambaram and Nihal Sarin finished in shared first place on 32/45 points the football scoring system was in place but Aravindh scored a higher number of wins, which granted him tournament victory. This win earned Aravindh a spot in the next event of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour.