CHANDIGARH: Twelve years old Ayaan Garg of Chandigarh bagged gold medal in the 7th Western Asian Youth Chess Championship 2024 in the U12 Open category (Standard/ classic) held at Sri Lanka from July 8 to 15. Ayaan has also won the Individual silver medal for Bharatn in the U-12 open category (Rapid) in the same championship held at Sri Lanka. The tournament concluded yesterday afternoon in Sri Lanka, where players from 10 different countries had come to participate.
It’s another feather in the cap of Chandigarh’s Ayaan Garg, a student at Strawberry Fields High School, Chandigarh. His current Fide International rating is 1885. Ayaan increased his rating by 73 points after the event. Ayaan Garg started the tournament as the third seed. Ayaan played 9 games and remained unbeaten throughout the tournament. He won 7 games and drew 2 games to emerge as a clear Champion to win Gold for Team India in his category.
With this outstanding performance in this Championship, he also earned Fide Master norm from the World Chess Federation (FIDE).
In the rapid format, there were 7 games out of which he won 5 games, drew 1, and lost 1 to clinch the silver medal.
Ayaan joined the Chandigarh Chess Academy in 2019 and has mastered the game under the training of his mentor/coach Naveen Bansal since then. Ayaan Garg has been trained by him since the age of 7. Ayaan showed great control of his nerves throughout the tournament. He showed great temperament during the tense moments of the games, which contributed to his winning the championship, added Naveen Bansal