281
17-year-old Indian grandmaster Leon Luke Mendonca triumphed at the Tata Steel Challengers 2024, booking his seat for the 2025 Masters event!
Mendonca defeated IM Divya Deshmukh in the last round to emerge as the sole Winner of the event with the score of 9.5 points. Divya Deshmukh had a clearly better position after the opening, but Leon Luke was patient to wait for his opponent’s mistake. It finally happened with 27…Qe2? and Mendonca scored a victory after a couple of moves. Scoring 9 points, each, Daniel Dardha and Marc’Andria Maurizzi trailed by half a point and finished the event tying for the second place.