Team Herald
PANJIM: Chess prodigy AIM Ethan Vaz put up an extraordinary show that made heads turn at the MPL 50th National Junior (Under-20) Open Chess Championship 2022, organised by District Chess Association Gurgaon on behalf of The Haryana Chess Association, under the aegis of All India Chess Federation., at Gurgaon, Haryana.
Ethan, with a starting rank of 107 amongst 201 players who were representing their respective States, finished 39th with 5.5 points, on par with a 7th seed IM and a 15th seed FM and one whole point ahead of two CMs, while missing out on a chance to make it to the Top 20 prize list by just half a point.
Ethan (Elo 1384) gave a tough fight to IM Harshavardhan G B (Elo 2402) of Tamil Nadu in the very first round. Despite being over 1000 points lower, where he lost to the International Master owing to a small pawn disadvantage after 4 hours of grueling chess.
