Almaty, Jun 11 (PTI) India's Divya Deshmukh emerged champion, while Mary Ann Gomes finished runner-up in the women's classical event of the Asian Continental Chess Championship, here on Sunday.

The 17-year old Divya drew the ninth and final round with Xenia Balabayeva of Kazakhstan to finish on top with 7.5 points.

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Mary also drew in the final round to settle for the second place with 6.5 points.

Divya had defeated WIM Meruert Kamalidenova (Kazakhstan) convincingly in the penultimate round.

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Indian player Sakshi Chitlange with 5.5 points took seventh place. Among other Indians, P V Nandhidhaa (5 points) and Aashna Makhija (5) finished 13th and 14th respectively.

In the Open event, GM Abhimanyu Puranik who was in medal contention going into the final round, only managed a draw against Azamat Utegaliyev. He finished on 6.5 points to settle for 4th place.

Indian GM Arjun Erigaisi, who started as the top seed, ended up sixth with 6.5 points followed by S P Sethuraman in 7th spot.

Uzbekistan GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov took the top place.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)