Harikrishnan wins Sangli Under 10 Championship

Harikrishnan Mohanan of Bambolim Chess Club and Third Standard student of Ezekiel Methodist School, Bambolim, won the Under 10 Late Smt L R Deshpande Memorial Open Chess championship organised by Nutan Buddhibal Mandal Sangli, Maharashtra.

He scored 7 points out of a possible 8 and defeated Vishwesh Koranne of Aurangabad in the crucial final round to win the title in a fiercely competitive group of 94 participants.

Harikrishnan is the younger brother of National player Shraddha Mohanan and coincidentally the fourth Goan boy continuously winning this prestigious event at Sangli. The earlier winners were Shubham Pinge (2004), Anurag Mhamal (2005) and Cyrus Pereira (2006).

Since all these Champions were trained at Bambolim Chess Academy, a lot of the credit should undoubtedly go to the ever devoted Mr and Mrs Swamy.

Shubam Pinge tops Colva chess tourney

Seventy-two participants braved the heat and sun to give their best at the all-Goa chess tournament organized by Junior Chamber International (JCI), Colva, in association with Goa State Chess Association (GSCA) at Colva.

Shubam Pinge secured top spot and was closely followed by Standrick Colaco and Bhakti Kulkarni.

Cash prizes were also awarded to Sahil Chopdekar, Pradeep Kulkarni, Purshottam Kanthak, Girish Kaushik, Avinash Malvankar and Vipul Kulkarni. Vidula Dempo won a special prize for being the youngest competitor.

Mr Sameer A. Salgaocar, GSCA president was the chief guest and praised the efforts of Dr Peter Carvalho in promoting the event. He had a special word of praise for the Colva Jaycees, celebrating their silver jubilee year.

Earlier, host president Mr Darren D’Costa welcomed. Project Manager Mr Delzin Furtado welcomed. Ms Brenda Rodrigues proposed the vote of thanks.

World Under 10 Champion Girish Kaushik felicitated!

Reigning World Under 10 Champion Girish Kaushik was felicitated at the Mir Sultan Khan Academy, Sanvordem in the presence of numerous chess fans and young players amidst great fanfare. The exceptionally talented Girish, who has also won the Asian Under 8 and National Under 9 Championship, was presented a Laptop, Software, and a Cash award of Rs. 10,000/- by AICF Vice President and GSCA President Sameer Salgaocar on this occasion.

Also felicitated at the Academy was Commonwealth Under 18 Champion and Asian Under 14 Champion Bhakti Kulkarni. She was honoured as Goa's first Titled Player. The young Woman FIDE Master was felicitated and presented a cheque of Rs. 15,000/- by reputed Chartered Accountant Bhagwathi Bhat.

Finally, the Coach and father of Girish - Arun Kaushik was honoured
with a Shawl and Momento by reputed businessman Raman Saripalli. The elated Arun Kaushik mentioned that a 'great future' awaited the Goan chess fraternity as there was a 'huge upsurge of talented Goan chess players who were making their presence felt across the national scene'.

The felicitation ceremony was preceded by a Simultaneous Display wherein Girish Kaushik and emerging star Niraj Saripalli took on the young members of the Academy. This was a great treat for the kids and the parents alike though the final score was 24-0 as the duo proved much too strong for the students.

Sanjay Kavlekar, SAG coach, gave the Vote of thanks and everyone went home thoroughly satisfied!

Ivana's success continues

posted by Dronacharya Awardee Raghunandan Gokhale

Ivana Furtado, the World Under 8 Girls' Champion added another laurel to her increasing booty by winning the World Under 8 School Chess Championship at Halkidiki,Greece on Saturday 5 th May,2007.

Ivana's attempts to win the higher (Under 9 years) category however could not succeed after her loss to Russian Aleksandra Golechkina in the final round.

As Ivana's coach Raghunandan Gokhale pointed out, the gap of one year is too great for the children to make up as they mature very fast each year. So the Organisers had decided to award Gold Medal to the highest scoring participant in the even- year age group. So while the organizers distributed three medals in Under 7,9,11,13,15 and 17 categories, they honoured the highest rank player in Under 6,8,10,12,14 and 16 categories.

Ivana's 6/9 score was important for her team too as India edged out mighty Russians by 35.5-35 points for the team title.Indian players (including Ivana) were awarded Gold Medals while Indian Head of Delegation Mr.Raghunandan Gokhale received the Team Championship Trophy.

So Ivana has scored a grand double winning both Under 8 World Chess Championship and Under 8 World School Championship! Now it is upto her to make Golden Hat-trick by winning Asian Under 8 Championship(Dubai) and World Under 8 Championship(Turkey)later this year.

World School Champion Ivana is expected to arrive at Panjim on 8th morning via Mumbai.

Ivana Furtado wins two more Golds at the World level!

World Under 8 Girls Champion and Goan Wondergirl Ivana Furtado
added two more feathers in her already crowded
cap when she won both the Individual Gold and
the Team Gold in the World Schools Chess Championships
that concluded in Halkidiki, Greece today. Abhimanyu Puranik
won the Gold in the Boys Under 7 Section and Sweety Patel (ELO 1993)
won the Gold in the Girls Under 9 Section to continue the
Indian dominance in the World Chess Events.

Ivana finished with 6 out of a possible 9 points and thereby
edged out arch rival C.H. Meghna of Kerala (ELO 1720) who finished
with 5.5 points. Meghna, who is the reigning National Under 7
Girls Champion, was beaten by Ivana in the crucial head
to head encounter in the 7th round and had to settle for
the Silver medal. Interestingly, Ivana has played Meghna 5 times
in various competitions and has come up trumps every time!

India's only Dronacharya Awardee and Ivana's coach Raghunandan Gokhale
mentioned that this could be because of a 'huge pyschological edge' that
Ivana enjoys against Meghna. Ivana's father Eli Furtado, who accompanied
Ivana to Greece, added that Meghna is 'visibly distressed' every time
that she notices that she has been paired opposite Ivana in an
upcoming round and the first time this was evident was during the
Asian Championship in New Delhi in December, 2005. Eli also remarked that
this tournament was far more 'competitive, tougher and demanding' than the competition in Batumi as this field included the dominant Russians who had
boycotted the Georgian event due to certain political reasons.

In the Team Championship, Ivana and Meghna teamed up to
win the Gold Medal for India. With this victory, Ivana has taken
her personal tally to 5 International Gold medals and Goa's tally
to a stupendous Seven. 'Surely a case can now be made to make Chess the
State sport of Goa?', asked AICF Vice President and GSCA
President Sameer A. Salgaocar, adding that 'in no other sport are we even
remotely as successful!'

Pranav wins Assolna chess title

Eleven-year-old Pranav Zantye was crowned champion at all-Goa Assolna chess championship at Regina Martyrum HS, Assolna. P M Kantak finished 2nd, Shubam Pinge 3rd, Swapnil Hoble 4th and Vasant Naik 5th.

Mohinesh Naik (U-13), Amod Kolwalkar (U-11), Rakshith Rai (U-7) bagged prizes in their respective sections. Vidula Dempo, Shawn Dias bagged prizes for youngest girl and boy respectively.

Meanwhile, coaches Avinash Malvankar, Sanjay Kalekar, Prabhakar Insulkar, Augusto Pinto, Peter Carvalho, Shrikant Barve, Purshottam Kantak, Wilson Cruz, Ashok Kadam, Amog Namshikar, Swapnil Hoble and Standrik Colaco were felicitated. Fr Francis D’Mello gave away the prizes. Fr Lin Fernandes was the chief guest. Mr Sameer Salgaocar, president of GSCA, Mr Benjamin Silva, Ms Noreen Dias, Ms Gorethy D’Costa, Ms Jenice Cardoso, Ms Zhenya Ferreira were amnong those present.