Anurag wins Goa State Championship!

12 year old Anurag Mhamal won the Goa State Senior Chess Championship conducted by Cortalim Chess Club in association with Goa State Chess Association at Fr Agnel College, Pilar. He remained unbeaten, scoring 8 out of 9 points to bag the Hirabai Salgaocar Rolling trophy and Rs 5000/- first prize sponsored by Bank of Baroda. Shubam Pinge came 2nd with 7 points which is incidentally the third time that he has finished as runner up in this premier event. Commonwealth Under 18 Champion WFM Bhakti Kulkarni seemed to be out of form and had to be contented with the 5th spot after having won the top spot on the three previous occasions. There was a total of Rs. 30,000/- prize money for this event and a total of 94 players took part.

Anurag continued his recent run of good form which he had exhibited in the Sangli Open chess tournament. There he had beaten IM Ravi Hegde, S.S. Soman and Navin S. Hegde among others and drawn with upcoming star Vidit Gujarathi. Anurag left the Sangli tournament with a round remaining to return to Goa to participate in the State Championship and his sacrifice paid huge dividends. In this tournament he faced no serious opposition and actually won the title with a round to spare which showed his superiority in no uncertain manner. He is presently being coached by Akash Thakur and a lot more is expected from this talented phenom!

Meanwhile, Anurag, Shubam, Niraj Saripalli and coach Standrik Colaco have been selected to represent Goa at National 'B' event in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu. The age-group prize winners were Riya Sawant, Ivana Furtado, Chinmay Patil, Rakshit Rai with Sahil Chopdekar and Akshay Devalkar emerging as best local players.