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).