Niraj and Rakshit win age group prizes.

Niraj Saripalli and Rakshit Rai won the Under 10 and Under 8 category prizes respectively in the Smt. Hirabai Salgaocar Memorial FIDE Rated tournament which concluded at the Clube de Tennis, Gaspar Dias Miramar earlier this month. Rakshit is being coached by Goa's Standrik Colaso whereas Niraj in the past has been trained by International Master D.V. Prasad of Karnataka.

The best local player prize was won by talented youngster Shubham Pinge (ELO 2003) who defeated Karnataka number five Naveen S. Hegde (2116) and drew with World Under 12 Champion N. Srinath (2166) of Tamil Nadu. Shubham, student of International Master Anup Deshmukh, admitted to having missed winning opportunities under time pressure against Srinath but was nevertheless satisfied with his overall performance. His next tournament will be the National Under 17 to be held in Maharashtra in the month of December.

Detailed coverage can be obtained at the following website - http://oheraldo.in/node/17836

D.P. Singh wins Smt. Hirabai Salgaocar Memorial

International Master Diwakar Prasad Singh continued his torrid pace with triumph in the Smt. Hirabai Salgaocar Memorial FIDE Rated Open tournament held at the Clube de Tennis Gaspar Dias, Miramar which concluded this month. Enroute to his victory, Singh defeated his Olympiad teammate Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda to tally a total of 9.5 points in the 11 round tournament.

Chanda, who finished level on points with Singh's Jharkhand buddy Umakant Sharma, was nevertheless awarded 2nd place in respect to his superior progressive. M.S. Thejkumar and Sriram Sarja, both of Karnataka, finished in the top 5 with creditable displays of chess. The Kolkata Grandmaster will be training with Estonia's GM Jaan Ehlvest in the days following this tournament and then take part in the Commonwealth Championship in Mumbai in November.

A beautiful pictorial report prepared by Shri Praful Zaveri is carried on chessbase.com at the following link - http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3289