Asian Para Games 2023: Darpan Inani wins men's individual rapid gold, India sweep podium

The Indian para-athletes returned with eight medals.

India’s chess players gave a good account of themselves at the Asian Para Games 2023 in Hangzhou, China. The Indian contingent also performed well overall, bagging 111 medals at the competition - four more than what their counterparts at the Asian Games took home.

At the Asian Para Games 2023, India’s chess team won eight medals - two gold, one silver, and five bronze - across different categories of rapid chess for players with visual impairments (VI).

In the men's individual rapid VI-B1, Darpan Satish bagged gold, Soundarya Kumar Pradhan finished with silver, while Ashwinbhai Makwana had to settle for bronze. Makwana prevailed against Amrillo Abdullaev, who hails from Uzbekistan, in the battle for 3rd place.

Darpan Sathish also went on to net another gold medal in the men's team rapid VI-B1 event in the company of Ashwinbhai Makwana and Soundarya Kumar Pradhan. The Indian squad pipped Iran to claim gold in the team event.

Kishan Gangolli netted India two bronze medals in the men's VI-B2/B3 category across the team and individual events. Giving support to Gangolli in the team contest were Somendra and Aryan Joshi. Across the team and solo encounters, the Indians came third behind chess players from the Philippines and Indonesia. Darry Bernardo of the Philippines took gold, and Indonesian Gayuh Satrio won silver at the individual rapid B2/B3 event.

Coming to the women’s events, the female team contributed two bronze medals to the Indian haul in the Women's Individual Standard VI-B1 and the Women's Team Rapid VI-B1 games. Himanshi Rathi helped herself to the bronze women’s solo event and another bronze as part of the team rapid event along with Vruthi Jain and Sanskruti More.

The team event was won by Iran, followed by Indonesia in second place. The top prize at the individual event went to Iran’s Maliheh Safaei, and the runner-up was Huong Pham Thi of Vietnam.