Ivana breaks record for the youngest World Champion

Indians make history, win 10 medals

NEW DELHI: Indians made history at the World youth chess championship by winning 10 medals, including five golds, at Batumi, Georgia, on Saturday.

After Ch. Mohineesh (under-8) and Girish Koushik (under-10) had ensured gold medals with a round to spare on Friday, Goan girl Ivana Furtado led an Indian sweep of the top-four spots in the girls' under-8 section.

Ivana's distinction

The Panaji-born Ivana also entered the record books by becoming the youngest Indian World champion in any sport. By being the best in the world at seven years and 226 days, Ivana broke the record of Sahaj Grover. Last July, the Delhi boy had replaced P. Hari Krishna as the record-holder.

Ch. Sahajasri won the girls' under-10 title while D. Harika beat the field in the girls' under-18 section.

Prince Bajaj (under-8) and M. Navyavyshnavi (girls' under-8) claimed silver medals while G.V. Sai Krishna (under-10), M. Mahalakshmi (girls' under-8) and Mary Ann Gomes (girls' under-18) won bronze medals.

Indians' standing: Open: U-8: 1. Ch. Mohineesh (10 points); 2. Prince Bajaj (9); 14. M. Satvik (7); 15. B. Kumaran (7); 16. Soumya Sharma (6.5); 18-20. Bharat Roshik, Harsha Vardhan Reddy and Neela Lohit (6.5 each).

U-10: 1. Girish Koushik (9.5); 3-5. G.V. Sai Krishna, R. Eswar and Abhilash Reddy (8 each); 6-8. Vijaya Kanth, Y.V.K. Chakravarthy and Shiven Khosla (7.5 each); 12. Sayantan Das (7); 17. Kharma Pandya (7); 27. Mugil Jayavel (6.5), 34. Vigram (6); 57. Sudarshan Surya (5), 61. Varman Vasantha (5).

U-12: 5. N. Srinath (8); 10-11. Fenil Shah and V.A.V. Rajesh (7 each); 13. L. Sri Harsha (7); 16-17. Vidit Gujarathi and Prasanna Rao (7 each); 22. Sahaj Grover (6.5); 28. Harsh Karnati (6.5); 29. Adith Jagadish (6); 39. Vishwanath Prasad (5.5); 48. Harihara Sudan (5.5); 73. Antonio Furtado (4.5); 76. K.S. Anand Reddy (4); 90. Suresh Nani (2.5).

U-14: 5. B. Adhiban (8); 22. K. Priyadarshan (6.6); 29. Y. Sandeep (6); 35. S. Nitin (6). U-16: 10. Aswin Jayaram (7); 13. S.P. Sethuraman (7); 27. D. Sai Srinivas (5.5). U-18: 12. G. Rohit (6.5); 19. S. Arun Prasad (6).

Girls: U-8: 1-2. Ivana Furtado and M. Navyavyshnavi (8.5 each); 3-4. M. Mahalakshmi and Sweety Patel (8 each); 7-8. U. Ashwini and Shoumi Mukherjee (7 each); 17. Shreya M. Gomini (6).

U-10: 1. Ch. Sahajasri; 6. K. Sai Nirupama (7.5); 9. B. Pratyusha (7.5); 23. K. Deepika (6); 27. Nishtha Gupta (6); 32; Uma Bharathi (5.5); 39. M. Priyadarshini (5); 46. G. Aiswarya (4.5).

U-12: 4. Padmini Rout (8); 17. J. Mohana Priya(6.5); 43. G. Sirisha (5). U-14: 5. Pon N. Krithika (7.5); 8. Bhakti Kulkarni (7); P. Lakshmi Sahiti (6.5); 20. Devangi Patankar (6); 24. Pallabi Roy (5.5). U-16: 14. I. Ramya Krishna (6.5); 22. Dhyani Dave (6); 28. P. Uthra (5.5); 53. V. Priyadarshiini (4). U-18: 1. D. Harika (9); 3. Mary Ann Gomes (7.5).

Medals tally (read Gold-Silver-Bronze-Total): India 5-2-3-10; Georgia 2-2-2-6; Azerbaijan 1-3-1-5; Poland 2-1-0-3; Ukraine 0-3-0-3; Armenia 1-1-0-2; China 0-0-2-2; Germany 1-0-0-1; (Egypt, Israel, Moldova and Vietnam won a bronze each).

Ivana conquers the world!

At the start of the 11th round, Asian Silver medallist Ivana Furtado
was in the lead with 7.5 points and was sharing the lead with two
others Navyavaishnavi and Mahalakshmi with the same number of points.
There were 4 girls trailing narrowly on 7 points so everything was
pointing towards a razor sharp finish. However, the prayers of all the
Goans were answered when Ivana demolished Shoumi Mukherjee to become
the Under 8 World Champion. Although Navyavaishnavi also finished with
level points 7 year old Ivana edged her out on a better cut
progressive tiebreak. In a never before accomplished feat, India swept
the medals tally here when Mahalakshmi won the bronze medal in the
section. Wonder girl Ivana's feat is even more significant as this was
the first time that the Under 8 category was introduced at the World
level. She will become thus the first World Champion in this category
as well as the first Goan to win a medal at this level!

Olympiad player and second seed WGM Dronavalli Harika (ELO 2353)
smashed Iran's seventh seeded WIM Pourkashiyan Atousa (2329) in a
short game to win the Girls Under 18 section of the World Youth Chess
Championships. In this section WIM Mary Ann Gomes (2264) won the
bronze medal by beating Meskhi Teona (2088) of Georgia.

Ch Sahajashri (1936) won gold as well in Under 12 Girls by drawing
with unrated Imnadze Natoto of Georgia to take India's tally to 5
golds.

The young hardworking chess players of India won an astounding total
of 10 medals which is considerably more than the two we won last year
in France and reimposed the faith that the Ministry of Sports had
placed in them by clearing a mammonth squad of 41. Significantly,
India picked up the World Youth Chess Championship for maximum number
of medals for the first time in its chess history.

Goa's WFM and Asian Gold medallist Bhakti Kulkarni (2062) beat
10th seed Le Hoan Tran Chau of Vietnam (2072) today in a dazzling
display to finish in a creditable eight place. She was seeded 11th
before this tournament started so she has surpassed the expectations
that people had of her. Significantly, she finished ahead of two time
National Subjunior Champion and Asian Under 16 Champion P. Lakshmi
Sahiti (2136) who had to be content with 12th place after suffering
defeat at the hands of Georgia's eight seeded Tsatsalashvili Keti
(2082) in the last round. This is the second consecutive time that
Bhakti has upstaged Sahiti, the previous one being in the National 'B'
in Chennai.

The website for the official results - http://chess-results.com/tnr4615.aspx?tnr=4615&art=4&lan=1&flag=30&style=2&mm=1&m=-1

Nandhini, Anurag win Under 13 titles

Nandhini Saripalli (ELO 1857) beat Celianne Carvalho in an epic endgame struggle to win the Goa State Selection Under 13 Girls title by scoring 3.5/4 points. Celianne, who had performed creditably in the Chennai National 'B' was full of confidence, needed just a draw in the final game. However, Nandhini who had just beaten Pushpalata Mangal (1990) and Nabeela Farheen (2101) also in Chennai, proved to be a tough cookie and justified her top seeding to win in 65+ moves. Celianne finished second on 3 points ahead of Jessica Perreira who had the same score but had to remain content with third place because of inferior progressive score.

In the boys section top seeded Niraj Saripalli (1988) lost to third seeded Anurag Mhamal (1888) in the Scotch Opening to finish out of the reckoning completely. Thanks to this win, Anurag was first on 5.5/6 points and in the final encounter duely capitalised on his coach Akash Thakur's fine opening preparation borrowed from a Kasparov-Karpov game. Umang Kaisary (1839) beat Pranav Zantye (1795) to finish on 5/6 points and in second place. Second seeded Cyrus Perreira (1893) finished third after beating Agasti Tari in the final round.

IM Berlinsky crowned chess champion

IM Vladimir Berlinsky (2301) of Russia beat compatriot IM Sergey
Krylov (2393) to emerge the new world champion at the 11th IBCA individual
world chess event for the blind, on Wednesday.

Vladimir who started off the ninth and final round on 6.5 points won
an epic battle against Krylov, who was tipped to win the title.
However, Vladimir held his cool to claim the gold medal as he emerged
the winner with 7.5 points to reign supreme in a world event for the
first time.

Vladimir, Krylov and Smirnov were looking very strong to stake their
claim for the title but today all the top three tables created ripples
across the playing arena.

Cuban Carlos Larduet Despaigne (2308) turned out to be the dark horse when he forced Russian Sergei Smirnov (2288) to resign and finish second with 7 points to
win the silver medal.

Ukraine's three time Women World Champion and top board Gold medallist at Turin
Olympiad WIM Lubov Zsiltzova-Lisenko (2284) downed compatriot Sergej Wassin (2299) to claim the third spot and the bronze medal with 7 points though she lost out on
inferior progressive score to the Cuban.

Union Sports Minister Mani Shankar Aiyyar, gave away the prizes. The
Minister said the Indian federation needed to be given due recognition
and that blind chess players ought to be encouraged.

Six Goans get FIDE rating.

Six Goan players got their rating in the October list
in a historic event of sorts. They are :

5045533 Adv. P.M. Kantak 1990
5045657 Niraj Saripalli 1988
5044561 Naik Manmesh 1953
5045541 Kavlekar Sanjay 1947
5044928 Cyrus Pereira 1893
5044952 Pranav Zantye 1795

This brings the total number of Goan rated players to 27.
All the players who got a rating of 1800+ received a cash award
of Rs. 5,000/- from the President of GSCA.

Ivana, Anurag win the Under 11 titles.

Anurag Mhamal completed his hattrick in the Under 11 category by bagging the Goa State Selection tournament held by the Bambolim Chess Club and scoring 6/7 points.
He finished on level points along with Rakshit Rai, Niraj Saripalli and Pranav Zantye (who finished 2-4 in that order resopectively) but won the title on a superior tiebreak. He is presently being coached by Nagpur youngster
Akash Thakur and is expected to put up a fine showing at the Nationals in Chennai in November.

In the Girls Section, Ivana Furtado (5/6 points) won the title inspite of losing to Vaisakhi Pilarnkar of Mapusa in the last round. The second spot was bagged by Sampada Barve. Pushpita Singh of Sharada Mandir and Vaisakhi Pilarnkar finished third and fourth respectively.

AICF Vice President Sameer A. Salgaocar awarded a special prize of Rs. 5,000/- to Anurag for his remarkable feat.

IBCA World Chess Championship gets underway!

India’s leading player Srikrishna Udupa from Karnataka, went down to Russia’s Sergey Krylov in the opening round of 11th IBCA individual world chess championship for the blind at Radisson Resorts, Varca, today.

The Indian favourite with a rating of 2057 was pitted against a Russian giant (2393), and started off confidently with white pieces and opened his attack with a Sicilian and Unusual variation. The Russian countered with a normal Sicilian defense but caught the Indian napping on a crucial 19th move on the board to seal the issue with black pieces.

Among other creditable performers for India, unrated Gaurav Gagodia held Milenko Cabarkapa of Serbia (2197) with black pieces to claim half-a-point. Milenko is one of the most experienced players having won the first two editions of the championhips.

Madan Bagayatkar, another unrated Indian, played a crafty game to share points with Russian Alexander Romanenkov (2234). In another tie, Swapnil Shah also held Russian Vladimir and Vasant Patil of India went down to German Schellmann Frank (2116) of Germany.

Earlier, the Chief Minister, Mr Pratapsingh Rane inaugurated the championships by making the first move. Mr Rane said that he was indeed glad to see Goa on the world map because of the unique event for the visually impaired.

The championship witnessed three world champions and one woman world champion in action. The most interesting match of the day in Round 1 involved 17-year-old Patrik Berggen of Sweden and Zhyltsova Liubov from Ukraine, who is one of the top woman players in the world. Also noteworthy was the fact that there were quite a few women participants from Germany, Ukraine, Iran and all the rated chess players playing in these championships have achieved their rating by playing against sighted world class players.

The Indian challenge is led by Srikrishna Udupa, Madan Bagayatkar, Rajesh Oza, Swapnil Shah, Darshan Patel, Shrish Patil and Vasant patil.

On the opening day the Indian coach and Dronacharya awardee Raghunandan Gokhale said he was hopeful that at least one Indian will feature in the top 10. “This is just the opening round and there is still a lot of chess to be played and the Indian players will bounce back in some way down the line,” Gokhale added.

Anirudh, Ivana win Under 7 titles.

Anirudh Bhat and Ivana Furtado won the Boys and Girls Under 7 titles respectively in the State selection tournament held at the Maharani Hotel, Vasco by the Vasco Chess Club.

In the Boys section, Anirudh stunned top seeded Snehil Shetty and finished with a perfect score of 6/6 to take first place. Snehil finished second with 5 points whereas the third through sixth positions were bagged by David Velho, Saish Bandodkar, Saish Mahale and Girish Kulkarni who all finished on 4 points.

In the Girls section, top seeded Ivana Furtado had no problems in retaining her crown with an effortless performance of 5/5 points. Riya Sawant finished second on 4 points whereas Reema Naik and Nadia Dias finished third and fourth respectively with 3.5 points each. The fifth through eighth spots were bagged by Sakshi Prabhu, Gauri Hadkonkar, Vidula Dempo and Sayali Parulekar.

Ivana received a special incentive of Rs. 5,000/- towards winning the crown for two years consecutively. She faces a sterner test in the upcoming Under 11 State selections and the National Under 7 Championships later this year.