Guwahati, April 7: Santu Mondal of Bengal won the championship title in the AACA International Fide Rating Chess Tournament for players with below 2,200 ELO points that concluded at T Ao Indoor Stadium of Cotton College here yesterday.

On the second board, Mondal faced Anish Gandhi of Maharashtra where both gave their best shot and fought it out for 61 moves before Mondal managed to clinch victory and also the championship title with eight points out of a possible nine in the nine-round event.

The final day witnessed stiff competition on all the top 10 boards as the players tried their best to secure their position among the top 20 positions, which carried cash prizes. Going into the final round, three players — Anurag Jaiswal of Bengal, Yohan J. of Kerala and Santu Mondal — were leading with seven points each.

Close on their heels were Anish Gandhi, Manjit Taw (Assam), Chakrilombi Singh (Manipur) and Y. Dhanabir Singh (Manipur) at 6.5 points per head.

Top seed of the tournament Rajib Dhar failed to live up to his billing and was languishing at third spot with six points.

He was clearly out of the championship race as even a last round win was not sufficient to claim the top position.

On the top board, Yohan J. faced Anurag Jaiswal and needed to only draw the game to emerge champion.

Accordingly, he offered for a draw in the 11th move but was declined by Jaiswal.

However, few moves later, Jaiswal misjudged a position and blundered apiece, resulting in a lost position and finally resigned on the 34th move.

Yohan J., Anurag Jaiswal, Manjit Taw, Chakrilombi Singh, Y. Dhanabir Singh, Bidyut Bikash Handique, S.S. Manigandan, Lulwang Gobin Thounaojam and Rajib Dhar finished second to 10th respectively.