Adhiban beats Sunilduth in Armageddon as Navigators lift MCL title

PUNE: A thrilling tie-break, debutants Pune Sangli Navigators' GM B Adhiban defeated Sunilduth Narayanan of Jalgaon Battlers in the Armageddon in the Finals of the 4th Maharashtra Chess League at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana.
The two teams, Jalgaon Battlers and Pune Sangli Navigators were evenly matched and just like their encounter in the Qualifier 1 on Tuesday, the rapid encounter ended in a 3-3 deadlock forcing once again an Armageddon. In Armageddon, the five minutes are given to player with white pieces and four minutes for black.In case of a draw, black wins.
For the Armageddon, Pune Sangli Navigators once again opted for their highest-rated player B Adhiban while Jalgaon Battlers changed strategy and fielded Sunilduth Narayanan instead of Narayanan Srinath who had scripted a lucky technical victory on Tuesday when Adhiban dropped his piece and pressed his clock.
Sunilduth opted for the Caro-Kann defence against Adhiban's King pawn opening. Adhiban brought his queen early into the game and soon forced the exchange of queens. Sunilduth's king could not castle while Adhiban castled late on the queen-side. Black had a passed pawn in the centre while Adhiban had two passed pawns on the queen-side which he advanced at every possibility and one of pawns reached the seventh rank. Adhiban then sacrificed his rook to aid the promotion of the pawn and had his opponent resigning immediately.
Meanwhile, Mary Ann Gomes and Abhijeet Gupta were adjudged best male and female players of the tournament. Mary and Abhijeet were awarded with a trophy and a cash prize of 10,000 each.