Shubham tops Moira chess

Shubham Pinge emerged champion at the M F Pinto memorial all-Goa chess tournament organised by AA de Moira. He scored seven points to pip Umang Kaisare (6) to the second position.

Shubham displayed great form to brush aside all his rivals, winning all his games on his way to bagging Rs 1200. The 12-year-old Umang, meanwhile, stunned veteran V Sivaswamy to herald his arrival as a budding talent. Former state champion P M Kantak (5.5) was lucky to draw with another rising star 10-year-old Niraj Saripalli (5.5) by a perpetual check. The fourth and fifth prizes were shared by Suhas Asnodkar and Manmesh Naik (5.5 each and identical tie-break scores). Niraj finished 6th while Wilson Cruz (5) was 7th. Following prizes were awarded: Best woman: Prasanna Sivaswamy. Best Moira player: Kelvin de Lima. Best U-7: Snehil Shetty, U-9: Rakshit Rai, U-11: Pranav Zantye, U-13: Anurag Mhamal.