Subic Bay (Philippines): Former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta played out a quick draw with Ni Hua of China to win the bronze medal in the Asian Continental Chess Championship here.

Ni Hua scored seven points and won the gold while the silver went to local star Wesley So of Philippines who scored 6.5 points with a better tie-break score than Abhijeet.

It was a four way tie for the second spot and Zhao Jianchao of China and Le Quang Liem of Vietnam were the other two who qualified for the next World Cup to be held in 2011.

Abhijeet, who had lost the second game, came back strongly mid-way through the tournament and didn’t lose focus after that.

In the final game, Abhijeet repeated a known drawing line with white pieces against the Berlin defense of Ni Hua. Abhijeet’s foresight in judging possible results proved right in the end but he was assisted by Yu Yangyi who misplayed from a winning position against Sasikiran.

Sasikiran and P. Harikrishna will both have to find another way to play in the next World Cup as both finished with an identical score of 5.5 points.

Harikrishna was stunned by S. P. Sethuraman in the penultimate round and won the final one while Sasikiran went down to Zhao Jianchao in the 8th round and drew with Yangyi in his final match.

Amongst other Indians in the fray, Sethuraman came up with a creditable show tallying six points and ended in a tie for the fifth place. Sethuraman was another comeback-man after a moderate start.

The women’s event was won by Atousa Pourkashiyan of Iran after she drew her final game against Chinese Tan Zhongyi. (PTI)