Niraj Saripalli finishes 8th; Cyrus 14th

Goa's Niraj Saripalli continued the state's
fine showing in the recent national events
by clinching the eighth spot in the National
Under 11 Chess Championships which
concluded in Kozhikode, Kerala.

In the tournament, Niraj had a bad start when
he lost to a low rated player in the second round
itself. Nevertheless, he kept his nerve and gradually
his position improved. In the last round, he beat the
fancied R. Eswar to finish in a five way tie for the
fourth place with 8 points. However, his poor tiebreak
score cost him dearly here and he finished on 8th
place which is a commendable performance.

Goa's Cyrus Perreira also followed closely with
7.5 points. He finished in the 14th spot which
is highly encouraging considering the fact that
he has one more year in this category.

Pranav Zantye finished 26th and Chinmay finished
38th. In the Girls Section, Vaishakhi Pilarnkar
finished 47th.

Umang Kaisary wins M. F. Pinto Memorial Open Chess in Moira

(Report prepared by GSCA Vice President Augusto Pinto)

Scoring 7 points from 7 rounds, 13 year old Sharada Mandir student Umang Kaisary proved that in Goan chess nobody can take anything for granted as he swept past all opposition to emerge champion at the M. F. Pinto Memorial open chess tournament organised by Associacao Academica de Moira. State champion Anurag Mhamal (6) took 2nd spot, the experienced Vasant Naik ( 5.5) was third, while State no.2 Shubham Pinge (5 ) was relegated to 4th spot on better progressive tie-break score. The 5th prize went to Arvind Mhamal (5) who edged out Wilson Cruz on better cut progressive tie-break score.

Others to get consolation prizes included Nandini Saripalli (Best 15 player); Rishabh Naik - (Best under-11); Shravan Barve (Best unrated boy) Varshitha Reddy (Best unrated girl) and Gajanan Haldankar (Best Moira player). The tournament was played using a combination of Lightning and Blitz formats, and the playing field had a total of 15 rated players.

The inform Umang defeated Shubham Pinge in the 4th round after sacrificing a piece in a French opening game. Shubham blundered by accepting it as it soon led to a back rank mate.

In the 5th round he met Anurag, and played aggressively against the Sicilian Rossolimo opening with black pieces. In the endgame that resulted, Umang's Bishop proved better than Anu's Knight and he forced the State Champion's resignation when his King got cornered.Although he was champion with a round to spare, he still went all out to defeat Arvind Mhamal in the last round.

The prizes were distributed by former President of GSCA , Adv. S. S. Rao who spoke of how chess players benefitted academically.Also present were GSCA officials Suhas Asnodkar, (Secretary); Sachin Arolkar (Treasurer); Arvind Mhamal (Jt. Sec.); Augusto Pinto (Acting Secy);and arbiters Tanay Kaisare and Shrikant Barve.

Ivana attends Anand's felicitation

World Under 8 Girls Champion Ivana Furtado,
her father Eli Furtado and GSCA President
Sameer A. Salgaocar attended World Champion
Viswanathan Anand's felicitation at Chennai.
On this occasion, Anand was presented a cheque
of Rupees Ten lakhs by the AICF President
N. Srinivasan in the presence of Asian President
Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, AICF
Secretary D.V. Sundar and cricketing legend
and former Indian captain Rahul Dravid.

During the function, Ivana was asked to present
a bouquet to the World Champion. The crowd broke
out into a spontaneous rapture as India's youngest
champion and the senior most champion came
face to face on the stage. Ivana also described
this moment as 'absolutely thrilling' and her father
Eli said that she was simply 'overwhelmed'.

'When I see these young kids (including Ivana)
I can see in their eyes what Anand means to them'
stated Dravid. 'He has been an inspiration to all of us.
I’d also like to congratulate his family,” he added.

Ivana also got some time to spend with her idol
and Super Grandmaster Koneru Humpy before
the function. Her coach Dronacharya Awardee
Raghunandan Gokhale also flew down from Mumbai
for this momentuous occasion.

Ivana later presented a resolution passed by
Goa State Chess Association commending Anand’s feats.
She also invited both Aruna and Vishy Anand to visit
Goa when they have some free time to which she received
a positive answer from Aruna.

GSCA President Salgaocar gave the credit to AICF
Secretary D.V. Sundar for having initiated the novel scheme
of having all of India's chess champions visit Chennai
for participating in Anand's moment of glory. 'When Ivana
went up on the stage, Goan chess had a moment that
will be indelibly imprinted on our minds', he later mentioned.

3 Goans in the top 10

Three Goans finished in the top 10
to create history in the National Under 9
Chess Championships which concluded
at Bangalore. Of these, Harikrishnan will have
a bright chance to represent India next year as the
3rd placed Ch. Mohineesh (ELO 1925) will get
seeding if he places in the top 3 in the World
Youth which is getting underway next month
in Antalya, Turkey.

Mohanan Harikrishnan (ELO 1730) was the
pick of the lot. He finished fourth in the Boys'
section after beating M. Karthikeyan of Tamil
Nadu. Harikrishnan will consider himself unlucky
not to finish in the top 3 as he had a brilliant
tournament and won accolades from one and all
for his sterling display. Before this the best finish
by a Goan boy was the 5th place of Cyrus Perreira
in the Under 9 held in Solapur last year.

World Under 8 Girls Champion Ivana Furtado finished
5th after beating statemate Gauri Hadkonkar in the
last round. Ivana has one more year in the Under 9
section and we expect her to finish much higher
in the next year's edition of this same tournament.

Perhaps the greatest revalation was young Riya Sawant
who finished 8th in the Girls section. Riya is still eligible
for the Under 7 Nationals which get underway later this
month in Lucknow. Another pleasant surprise for the Goans
was the performance of Gauri Hadkonkar who finished
in 18th place. GSCA President Sameer A. Salgaocar
flew down to Bangalore for the Prize Distribution ceremony
and congratulated the successful Goan players in person.

Boys (final round): Diptayan Ghosh (9.5) drew with Sidhanth Mohapatra (9); Ch Mohineesh (8.5) drew with Sardara Preet (8.5); M. Satvik (8.5) bt Ashwath P. Hari (7.5); Arjun Bharat (8.5) bt Gv. Revanth Reddy (7.5); M. Karthikeyan (7.5) lost to Harikrishnan Mohanan (8.5); Adarsh P. Yeshwanth (8.5) bt Maniar Thirth (7.5).

Girls: Sunya Sakta Satpathy (8) lost to GK Monisha (9.5); Sweety Patel (8.5) bt M. Mahalakshmi (8); Shoumi Mukherjee (9) bt Akhankya Kabi (7); C.H. Meghana (8) bt Divya Garg (7); Ivana Maria Furtado (8) bt Gauri Keshav Hadondkar (7).

Ivana in joint second place

World Under 8 Girls Champion Ivana
Furtado of Goa found herself in joint
second place after the sixth round of the
National Under 9 Chess Championships
being played at Bangalore.

Ivana defeated Megha Gupta of Gujarat in the
sixth round. This was the same girl who had
defeated topseed Sweety Patel (ELO 1983)
in the first round so Ivana could not take any
chances. She eventually prevailed in a tough
battle to bag her 5th point in 6 rounds.

G.K. Monnisha (ELO 1705) of Tamil Nadu is in
the lead with 5.5 points. Ivana and 4 others
are in the second spot with 5 points each.
Goa's Gauri Hadkonkar (4 points) and Riya Sawant
(3.5 points) are also doing well. Ivana faces the leader
in a crucial encounter in the 7th round.

In the boys section, two Goans are in joint 5th
place surprisingly with 5 points each. They are
M. Harikrishnan (ELO 1730) and Rakshit Rai
(ELO 1656). Hopefully, one or both of these can
qualify for the internationals by placing in the top 3.

Anurag finishes 12th

Goa's state champion Anurag Mhamal (ELO 2092)
finished off with a nice win aganst Tejas Ravichandran
(ELO 1980) of Tamil Nadu and ended with 7.5 points
in the National Subjunior Chess Championships which
concluded here at Chennai today.

Tejas launched a premature attack on the Kingside which
was effectively foiled by Anurag and he also won a piece
in the ensuing melee. Mhamal simplified matters into a
winning endgame and his opponent resigned in just 29
moves. This makes up somewhat for Anurag's unfortunate
loss yesterday against IM Norm holder Aditya Udeshi (ELO 2355)
of Maharashtra where he failed to claim a draw by repetition
of moves.

Considering that Anurag was seeded 24th at the start of the
tournament, a 12th place finish is indeed a welcome effort from
this 12 year old lad. He finished ahead of former World Under 12
Champion N. Srinath (ELO 2201 and 16th place) and last year's
Under 11 National Champion Fenil Shah (ELO 2124 and 18th place)
so his performance is indeed commendable. His next tournaments will
be the Under 13 Nationals and the Commonwealth Chess Championships
which are both to be conducted in New Delhi in December, this year.

Also doing well was Nandhini Saripalli (ELO 1876) of Goa who beat
unrated Pallavi of Bihar in the last round. Although she was
ranked 28th at the start of the tournament, Nandhini finished 23rd.
Goan chess lovers can expect more good things to come from both
Anurag and Nandhini in the future!

Tejas Ravichandran (1980) - Anurag Mhamal (2092)
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bf4 c5 4.e3 Nc6 5.c3 Bd6 6.Bg3 Nf6 7.Nbd2 Qe7
8.Bxd6 Qxd6 9.Bd3 0-0 10.0-0 e5 11.dxe5 Nxe5 12.Nxe5 Qxe5 13.Nf3 Qc7
14.Qa4 b6 15.Qh4 Re8 16.Rad1 h6 17.Bc2 Bb7 18.Qh3 Rad8 19.Bb1 Ne4
20.Rfe1 Rd6 21.Nh4 Bc8 22.g4 h5 23.f3 hxg4 24.fxg4 Rh6 25.Rxd5 Qe7
26.Bxe4 Rxh4 27.Qf3 Rxg4+ 28.Kh1 Qxe4 29.Qxe4 Rgxe4 0-1

Nandhini Saripalli (1876) - Pallavi
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 c5 5.b3 Nbd7 6.0-0 b6 7.Bb2 Qc7 8.Ne5
Bd6 9.f4 a6 10.c4 Bb7 11.Nd2 0-0 12.Rc1 h6 13.Qe2 Rfc8 14.g4 Ne4
15.Ndf3 Nxe5 16.dxe5 Be7 17.f5 Qd8 18.cxd5 Qxd5 19.Rcd1 Qc6 20.Qg2 Ng5
21.Be2 Ne4 22.Nd2 Nxd2 23.Qxc6 Bxc6 24.Rxd2 Rd8 25.Rfd1 Rxd2 26.Rxd2
exf5 27.gxf5 Bg5 28.Kf2 Bh4+ 29.Kf1 Bb5 30.Rd6 Bxe2+ 31.Kxe2 b5 32.Rc6
Be7 33.Rc7 Kf8 34.e6 f6 35.Rd7 a5 36.Rb7 b4 37.Kd3 a4 38.bxa4 Ke8
39.Kc4 Rxa4 40.Rb8+ Bd8 41.Kb3 Ra7 42.a3 bxa3 43.Bxa3 Ra5 44.Rc8 c4+
45.Rxc4 Rxf5 46.Rc8 Re5 47.e7 Rxe7 48.Bxe7 Kxe7 49.Kc4 Bb6 50.e4 Kf7
51.Kd5 g5 52.h3 h5 53.Rc6 Be3 54.e5 fxe5 55.Kxe5 h4 56.Kf5 Bf4 57.Rb6
Ke7 58.Rb7+ Kf8 59.Kf6 Ke8 60.Rh7 Bc1 61.Re7+ Kd8 62.Re2 Bf4 63.Kf7
Bc1 64.Re1 Bf4 65.Rd1+ Kc7 66.Ke7 Kc8 67.Rd4 Kc7 68.Rc4+ Kb6 69.Ke6
Bd2 70.Kd5 Kb7 71.Kd6 Kb8 72.Kd7 Kb7 73.Rc2 Bf4 74.Rb2+ Ka8 75.Ke6 Bc1
76.Rb1 Bf4 77.Kf5 Bd2 78.Kg4 Ka7 79.Rb5 Ka8 80.Rxg5 Bxg5 81.Kxg5 Kb7
82.Kxh4 Kc8 83.Kg5 Kd8 84.Kf6 Ke8 85.Kg7 Ke7 86.h4 1-0

Anurag holds International Master to a draw

State Champion Anurag Mhamal (ELO 2092) managed to
hold reputed International Master M. Shyam Sundar (ELO 2241)
of Tamil Nadu to a 25 move draw in the crucial ninth round of the National
Sub junior Championships being played in Chennai.

Shyam Sundar had tied for first place in the Asian Junior
Championship in New Delhi last year and this was going to be
a tough battle for Anurag. In a French Defence opening,
12 year old Anurag actually managed to get a slight
positional edge as his opponent had an isolated Queen pawn.
However, that did not seem to be enough and the players agreed
for a draw through a repetition of moves.

IM S.P. Sethuraman (ELO 2427) of Tamil Nadu leads with 8 points
after he defeated statemate FM K. Priyadarshan (ELO 2298).
He is followed by International Master B. Adhiban (ELO 2422)
and R. Ramnath Bhuvanesh (ELO 2115) also of Tamil Nadu
and Antonio Viani D' Cunha (ELO 1988) of Karnataka
who are on 7 points each.

Anurag is in joint 5th position with a bunch of other players.
Two more rounds remain in this event and he will have to win both
to stand in the first five who will have a chance to represent
India in the World Under 16 Olympiad next year.

In the Girls section, A. Niji (ELO 1925) took over the sole lead with
7.5 points. Top seed WFM Pon. N. Krithika (ELO 2140) was shocked by
Tamil Nadu state mate R. Bharathi (ELO 2017) in a Caro Kann Opening.

Shyam Sundar M (2241) - Anurag Mhamal (2092) [C10]
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Be7 6.Bd3 Ngf6 7.Nxf6+
Bxf6 8.0-0 0-0 9.Re1 c5 10.c3 cxd4 11.cxd4 Nb6 12.Qc2 g6 13.Bh6 Re8
14.Rad1 Nd5 15.a3 b6 16.Ne5 Bb7 17.Be4 Bg5 18.Bxg5 Qxg5 19.Rd3 Rac8
20.Qd1 Re7 21.Rg3 Qh6 22.Rh3 Qg5 23.Rg3 Qh6 24.Rh3 Qg5 25.Rg3 1/2-1/2

4 more Goans in October 2007 FIDE list!

Four more Goans - Agasti Tari, Brahmanand Kamat,
M. Harikrishnan and Rakshith Rai - made it to the FIDE rating list
which was released on October 1, 2007. This reflects the
growing popularity of chess with the youngsters in Goa
as they are now performing well in the Open tournaments
and earning a name for themselves and the State.

Goan chess also celebrated the success of Anurag Mhamal
and Umang Kaisary whose ratings improved by 33 points and
67 points respectively. Whereas Umang dazzled in Mangalore
with a 2093 performance, Anurag essayed a brilliant 2203 performance
in the National 'B' conducted at Dindigul, Tamil Nadu.

Among the active players the gap between Woman FIDE Master
Bhakti Kulkarni and Anurag Mhamal has narrowed to just
20 points though it must be mentioned that Bhakti will be gaining
61 ELO points for her performance in the National Junior Championship
which will be reflected in the January 2008 rating list.

Some of the important ratings are as follows -


J. Venkata Ramana 2168
Mandar Tahmankar 2141
Bhakti Kulkarni 2112
Swapnil Hobble 2105
Anurag Mhamal 2092
Suhas Asnodkar 2031
Shubham Pinge 2012
Sumit Asnodkar 1999
P.M. Kantak 1990
Niraj Saripalli 1967
Standrik Colaso 1957
Sanjay Kavlekar 1947
Celianne Carvalho 1926
A. Malwankar 1914
Umang Kaisary 1889
Prasanna Swamy 1884
Nandhini Saripalli 1876
Keegan Furtado 1870
Shradha Mohanan 1857
Cyrus Perreira 1845
V. Siva Swamy 1820
Pranav Zantye 1795
Anuradha Chavan 1766
Chinmay Patil 1725

New entrants
Agasti Tari 1875
Brahmanand Kamat 1747
M. Harikrishnan 1730
Rakshith Rai 1656

Recent top rating performances by Goan players

1. Commonwealth, November 2006 - 2328 Bhakti Kulkarni (9 games)
2. National Junior Girls 2007 - 2220 Bhakti Kulkarni (10 games)
3. National B 2006 - 2203 Anurag Mhamal (12 games)
4. Sangli, May 2007 - 2176 Anurag Mhamal (8 games)
5. Sangli, May 2005- 2175 Bhakti Kulkarni (7 games)
6. Rochess, December 2006 - 2162 Anurag Mhamal (7 games)
7. Sangli, December 2006 - 2157 Anurag Mhamal (8 games)
8. Mangalore 2007 - 2093 Umang Kaisary (7 games)