The Moscow-born player secured the European Individual Chess Championship title in Serbia in March where he competed as a neutral.

Russians and Belarusians have been allowed to play under the International Chess Federation flag since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year.

One month after his European success, Sarana decided to leave the Russian Chess Federation for the Serbia Chess Federation having moved to Serbian capital Belgrade with his brother.

"I love Russia a lot but I hate all the political stuff," Sarana told chess.com in April.

"What our Government is doing now is absolutely disgusting.

"I cannot accept it, but I cannot do anything about it.

"But I have no sympathy for this war - all the reasons are absolutely terrible."

Sarana emerged victorious at the Suntec Convention Centre in Singapore today, defeating Russian Maksim Chigaev, who is competing as a neutral in the finals of the Olympic Esports Series.

The best-of-four format saw Sarana win in three games, forcing Chigaev to resign on each occasion.

"It's an amazing feeling," said Sarana.

"I expected a lot from this tournament, and I enjoyed it.

"It was the first tournament which I considered myself the favourite, and I even won it.

"It's something very unusual, something very new, but I liked it a lot.

"To play on scene with a lot of spectators; I think I've never played with spectators, I think."

Vietnam's Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son claimed bronze after beating another Russian neutral in Aleksandr Rakhmanov.

Australia’s Lucas Malissa came out on top in the International Shooting Sport Federation Challenge featuring Fortnite.

A specially-designed Fortnite Creative Island, made to reflect sport shooting competition, put the target-aiming accuracy of sharp shooters to the test.

Malissa was the top qualifier from the time-trial stage before completing the map in under two minutes in both the quarter-finals and semi-finals.

American gamer Alexander Feyzjou, representing the North American region, moved ahead in the final only to miss the last jump through the finish line as Malissa snatched victory.

The third-place match saw Latvia’s Andrejs Piratovs overcome Australia’s Sebastian Cole to secure the other place on the podium.

France’s Anass Benghazi defeated China’s He Shenghao in a thrilling final of the Tennis Clash mobile game to win the Olympic Esports Series.

He had won their last head-to-head in the group stages only for Benghazi to prevail in the best-of-five final.

Benghazi triumphed 3-1 after exploiting a tactical error from He who opted to change his line-up and use a different character and boosts for the final match.

"I wasn't expecting to win," said the Frenchman.

"I was happy to get one of the top three places.

"I couldn't have wished for a better tournament."

Britain’s William Foster, a two-time Roland Garros eSeries champion, responded to his shock defeat to Benghazi to seal bronze with a 2-0 victory over China’s Lyu Shengquan.

Competition is due to continue tomorrow with the Olympic Esports Series Finals in taekwondo and motorsport.