Ivana finishes off in style

World Under 8 Girls Champion Ivana Furtado
finished off her campaign in grand style by
disposing off Ali Alia of U.A.E. in less than one
hour in the last round of the Asian Youth Chess
Championships which concluded in Al Ain, U.A.E.
today.

With this victory, Ivana notched 8 out of possible
9 points to record her first Gold Medal in the Asian
Youth Championships. She becomes thus the
youngest Indian to have bagged both the World and
the Asian Championships - another feat for the
Limca Book of records! She will look to make it three
in a row when she participates in the Commonwealth
Championships to be held in New Delhi in December
this year.

Unfortunately, India could not get any more medals
as Ivana's compatriot C.H. Meghna who is also the
National Under 7 Champion lost in the last round to
Iran's Kimya Ghaziolsharif and finished 5th with 5.5 points.
P.Preethy, also of India, finished with 5 points on 7th place.

Ivana's coach Raghunandan Gokhale gave more cheer
for the Indian camp when his student Shardul Gagare
finished with a victory over Enkhnar Enkhbataar of Mongolia
to win the Gold in Boys Under 10 section. World Champion
Girish Kaushik had to remain content with the Silver here
after beating Sultan Ibrahim of the U.A.E.

India garnered three more Gold medals when B. Pratyusha
in the Girls Under 10, Priyanka Kumari in the Girls Under 12
and Revanth Reddy in the Boys Under 10 section all finished
top in their respective categories. India's tally of 10 medals
(5 Golds, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze) is in stark contrast to the 21
medals that they won in Teheran which included 8 Gold medals
in all the 8 categories.

Finally, the home crowd had great reason to celebrate when
local boy and double IM Norm holder Saleh Salem won the boys
Under 14 section ahead of India's International Master S.P. Sethuraman
who finished with the Silver. Salem, the only Gold medal winner from the
U.A.E. was rewarded with a Nissan car by the sponsors!

Ivana creates history!

World Under 8 Girls Champion Ivana Furtado created history by winning the Asian Youth Under 8 Girls section with a round to spare after beating Vietnam's
Vu Thi Dieu Uyen in the penultimate round of the Championships
being played at Al Ain, U.A.E. After notching her seventh victory in eight rounds, Ivana has an unsurmountable 1.5 point lead over her
nearest rivals - Vu Thi Dieu Uyen of Vietnam and C.H. Meghna of India
and thus her last round matchup against Ali Alia of U.A.E. is of academic
interest only.

With this feat, Ivana has won all the three medals in the Girls
Under 8 section in successive years and this in itself is an unprecedented
feat! She won the Bronze in the New Delhi edition in 2005, the Silver in
the Teheran edition in 2006 and now the Gold in Al Ain in 2007. Interestingly,
the organisers have announced that the Gold medals presented to the winners
will be of pure gold so she could not have picked a better time
to have accomplished this stupendous feat.

Coach Raghunandan Gokhale speaking from Al Ain mentioned Ivana's 'remarkable
fighting qualities' which helped her to win the Gold medal. She suffered a
setback in the second round when she lost to unfancied Mongolian girl
Tegshduren Uranderdene, but bounced back to win 6 in a row including a crucial
win over her arch rival C.H. Meghna of India who also happens to be the
National Under 7 Champion of India. Ivana had beaten Meghna in their 5 previous
battles and the encounter in Al Ain proved to be no different in the vital
7th round.

Ivana and her parents Eli and Jennifer Furtado will be returning to Goa on the
30th of September where they will be given a rousing reception by the Goan
chess community and sports afficianados. Ivana's upcoming tournaments include
the National Under 9 tournament in Bangalore in October, the World Youth Championships where she will try to defend her crown in Antalya, Turkey in
November and the Commonwealth Championships in New Delhi in December 2007.