Sanjay and Avinash for FIDE Instructor Course

(Photo - Executive Director SAG V.M. Prabhudesai, Assistant
Secretary (Programs) Navin Acharya, AICF Vice President
Sameer A. Salgaocar and GSCA Secretary Suhas Asnodkar
with the two SAG Coaches)

Sports Authority of Goa Coaches Sanjay Kavlekar (ELO 1908)
and Avinash Malvankar (ELO 1914) will leave shortly for Chennai to
attend the prestigious FIDE Instructor Course which is
being conducted by the All India Chess Federation. FIDE
Senior Trainer International Master Jovan Petronic of
Serbia and FIDE Master Peter Long of Malaysia will
be conducting this course from 30th April to 7th May.

AICF Vice President Sameer A. Salgaocar thanked
Sports Minister Manohar Azgaonkar and SAG
Executive Director V.M. Prabhudesai for clearing
the proposal to depute the coaches for this 'once
in a life time opportunity'. 'The unstinted support that we
have received from the Goa Government and SAG
has enabled chess to reach the heights that we are
at presently', he added.

Presently, there are no FIDE certified trainers in Goa
and this initiative by Sports Authority of Goa and the
Goa State Chess Association will be indeed a path
breaking initiative which will give long term benefits
to the chess students in the various schools of Goa.
Kavlekar and Malvankar, after attending the course
in Chennai, in turn can teach these methods
of training to other coaches in Goa and this will help
raise the standard of instruction in the State, it is
understood.

'Sanvordem will become a major chess centre'

While praising the efforts of the upcoming Mir Sultan
Khan Chess Academy and especially highlighting
the outstanding work of GSCA Executive Member
Amrut Naik and SAG Coach Sanjay Kavlekar, chief
guest Dr. Peter Carvalho declared that Sanvordem
will soon emerge as a major chess centre in Goa.

Dr. Carvalho, the founder of Cortalim Chess Club, was
speaking at the Prize Distribution ceremony of the
State Subjunior Championship which concluded at the
Sarvodaya High School, Curchorem. He went on to
add that chess organisation entailed a lot of 'hard
work and discipline, and running a full fledged academy
was a tedious and time consuming process'. He noted
that after Vasco and subsequently Bambolim, it was the Sanvordem
clubs that were now conducting the maximum chess
tournaments in the state of Goa.

A laptop, digital chess clocks and sets were donated to the Academy
by Mata Mamata Sukhdata Pratisthan. AICF Vice President
Sameer A. Salgaocar, GSCA Secretary Suhas Asnodkar and
other Executive Members of the GSCA were also present on
the occasion.

Riya Sawant creates history

Eight and a half years old Riya Sawant, who is a 2nd standard
student of St. Mary's High School, Mapusa created history
by becoming the youngest ever Subjunior Girls Champion in the
Goa State Subjunior Chess Championship which concluded
at the Sarvodaya High School, Curchorem today.

Riya, who is a student of V. Sivaswamy and a product of the
Bambolim Chess Club, finished the tourney with a maximum of 5
possible points by winning her fifth round game against Sukanya
Chari. The second and third places went to the top seeds Celiane
Carvalho and Nandini Saripalli who finished with 4 points each and
identical progressive scores. Celiane was adjudged second by virtue
of a coin toss. The fourth place went to unrated Sukanya Chari
who edged out Sonali Kerkar on a higher progressive score
although both finished with an identical score of 3.5 points.

In the Boys section, top seed Anurag Mhamal drew both his last two
games with Niraj Saripalli and Umang Kaisary. Nevertheless, he still
finished first with 6 points and completed a creditable hattrick of
victories in the same category. Second place went to Cyrus Perreira,
the Asian Schools Under 11 Gold Medallist, who finished with 5 and
a half points. Mohanan Harikrishnan, Niraj Saripalli and Umang Kaisary
finished in third to fifth places in that order.

Mrs. Jostna Saripalli and SAG coach Avinash Malvankar were the
Chief Arbiters for the event organised by the Mir Sultan Khan Chess
Academy. The prize money of Rs. 25,000/- was sponsored by Shreeji Sales
Corporation. The Chief Guest for the prize distribution ceremony
was Dr. Peter Carvalho, the founder of Cortalim Chess Club.

Last round results with the points tally in brackets -

Girls
Sukanya Chari (3.5 pts) lost to Riya Sawant (5 pts)
Celiane Carvalho (4 pts) beat Urvi Bandekar (3 pts)
Sampada Barve (3 pts) lost to Nandini Saripalli (4 pts)
Vidula Dempo (3 pts) beat Gauri Hadkonkar (2.5 pts)
Sonali Kerkar (3.5 pts) beat Dipashree Malvankar (2 pts)

Boys
Anurag Mhamal (6 pts) drew with Umang Kaisary (5 pts)
M. Harikrishnan (5.5 pts) drew with Cyrus Perreira (5.5 pts)
Rakshit Rai (4.5 pts) drew with Niraj Saripalli (5 pts)
Amod Kolwalkar (5 pts) beat Yeshitesh Shirodkar (4 pts)
Snehil Shetty (4 pts) lost to Anirudh bhat (5 pts)

Anurag, Riya in sole lead

Goa State Champion Anurag Mhamal (ELO 2126)
wrested the sole lead with 5 points in the Boys section
after beating Asian Schools Under 11 Gold medallist
Cyrus Perreira (ELO 1873) in the 4th round of the
State Subjunior Boys Championship being played
at the Sarvodaya High School, Curchorem.

Anurag encountered a variation of the Queen's Gambit
Accepted and displayed his positional superiority to
win the resulting endgame in 56 hard fought moves.
There are 5 players following Anurag on 4 points each -
Cyrus, Niraj Saripalli (ELO 1952), M. Harikrishnan
(ELO 1744), Rakshit Rai (ELO 1659) and unrated
State Under 9 Champion Anirudh Bhat. If Niraj, who
has white pieces against Anurag in the 6th round,
can pull off an upset, the tournament is thrown wide
open. A victory for Anurag however, clinches his third
successive Subjunior crown.

In the Girls section, Riya Sawant (ELO 1430) beat
Sampada Barve (ELO 1651) to record her second upset
of the day and moved into the sole lead with 4 points.
Riya won after 59 moves in the Cambridge Springs
Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined opening.
She is followed by unrated Sukanya Chari who was lucky to
draw her fourth round game with Gauri Hadkonkar after
blundering early in the game. The fifth and final round sees
Riya pitted against Sukanya and even a draw will see
Riya through as the Champion.

There is a total prize fund of Rs. 25,000 for both the sections
and the top four in each category will represent Goa in the
upcoming National Subjunior Championships to be held
later this year in Mangalore.

Tomorrow's crucial games are as follows -

Boys (penultimate round)
Niraj Saripalli (4 pts) vs. Anurag Mhamal (5 pts)
Cyrus Perreira (4 pts) vs. Rakshit Rai (4 pts)
Anirudh Bhat (4 pts) vs. M. Harikrishnan (4 pts)
Umang Kaisary (3.5 pts) vs. Pranav Zantye (3.5 pts)

Girls (final round) -
Sukanya Chari (3.5 pts) vs. Riya Sawant (4 pts)
Celiane Carvalho (3 pts) vs. Urvi Bandodkar (3 pts)
Sampada Barve (3 pts) vs. Nandini Saripalli (3 pts)
Vidula Dempo (2 pts) vs. Gauri Hadkonkar (2.5 pts)

Upsets galore in 3rd round of State Subjunior Girls

Both the top two seeds - Celiane Carvalho (ELO 1881)
and Nandini Saripalli (ELO 1844) - surprisingly lost to their
lesser fancied rivals in the hard fought third round
of the State Subjunior Girls Championship
being played at the Sarvodaya High School,
Curchorem.

Riya Sawant (ELO 1430), who had stood fourth
in the National Under 7 Championship in Lucknow,
found herself a pawn down after the opening in her
game against Celiane. Nevertheless, Riya unleashed
a fierce attack with her Queen, Rook and Bishop against
Celiane's King. In the ensuing melee, Celiane lost both
material and the game when Riya found all the correct
moves in a sterling display.

On the second board, unrated Sukanya Chari upset
the calculations of second seeded Nandini Saripalli
in a positional encounter. Sukanya had connected
'a' and 'b' passed pawns in the endgame when Nandini
had to finally concede the game. Riya and Sukanya are
joined in the lead by Sampada Barve (ELO 1651) who
beat unrated Apurva Naik. With just two rounds to go, any
of these three girls can win the Championship.

In the boys section, all the fancied players won their
games without much trouble. State Champion Anurag
Mhamal (ELO 2126) beat Pranav Zantye (ELO 1774)
to set up a clash with Asian Schools Under 11 Gold
medallist Cyrus Perreira (ELO 1873) in the 5th round.
Anurag, who has won this tournament twice before,
will face a stiff test from Cyrus, who beat upcoming
Amod Kolwalkar to notch his fourth consecutive
victory in the tournament.

The tournament is being organised by the Mir Sultan Khan
Chess Academy, Sanvordem and concludes on the 15th of April.

Important results

Boys - Pranav Zantye (3 pts) lost to Anurag Mhamal (4 pts)
Cyrus Perreira (4 pts) beat Amod Kolwalkar (3 pts)
Rakshit Rai (3.5 pts) beat Snehil Shetty (2.5 pts)
Niraj Saripalli (3 pts) beat Umang Kaisary (2.5 pts)
M. Harikrishnan (3 pts) beat Sriraj Bakhle (2 pts)

Girls - Celiane Carvalho (2 pts) lost to Riya Sawant (3 pts)
Sukanya Chari (3 pts) beat Nandini Saripalli (2 pts)
Sampada Barve (3 pts) beat Apurva Naik (2 pts)
Mithali Manohar (1 pt) lost to Gauri Hadkonkar (2 pts)
Urvi Bandekar (2 pts) beat Sayani Kerkar (1 pt)

41 Goan Players in April FIDE List

Some of the FIDE elo ratings of the
Goan players are as follows (Mandar has
just started playing) -

1. T.S. Venkataraman 2247
2. Bhakti Kulkarni 2166
3. Kartik Muchandi 2159
4. Anurag Mhamal 2126
5. Charudatta Desai 2010
6. Mandar Tahmankar 2106
7. Swapnil Hobble 2105
8. Suhas Asnodkar 2031
9. Shubham Pinge 2012
10. Sumit Asnodkar 1999
11. Wilson Cruz 1994
12. P.M. Kantak 1990
13. Vasanth Naik 1969
14. P.P. Insulkar 1963
15. Standrik Colaso 1957
16. Manmesh Naik 1953
17. Niraj Saripalli 1952
18. A. Malvankar 1914
19. Sanjay Kavlekar 1908
20. Umang Kaisary 1882
21. Celianne Carvalho 1881
22. Cyrus Perreira 1873
23. Keegan Furtado 1870
24. Prasanna Swamy 1866
25. Amogh S. Namshiker 1859
26. Shradha Mohanan 1857
27. Ivana Furtado 1850
28. Nandhini Saripalli 1844
29. Agasti Tari 1841
30. V. Siva Swamy 1820
31. Pranav Zantye 1774
32. Anuradha Chavan 1766
33. Brahmanand Kamat 1747
34. M. Harikrishnan 1744
35. Gautam Tari 1717
36. Chinmay Patil 1711
37. Rishubh Naik 1708
38. Rakshith Rai 1659
39. Sampada Barve 1651
40. Jessica Perreira 1490
41. Riya Sawant 1430

Ivana leads largest Goan team for Nationals

Double World Under 8 Girls Champion
Ivana Furtado leads the largest ever squad
of twenty participants fielded by Goa
in the National Under Nine Chess
Championships which gets underway at the
Bapu Samaj Seva Kendra in New Delhi in
approximately a fortnight's time.

Ivana, who has the World and Asian Girls
titles under her belt, will try to claim the
National Championship for the first time.
Her best ever finish was third in the National
Under 7 Championships held in Aurangabad.
Her coach Raghunandan Gokhale has expressed
confidence that Ivana will achieve her target in
this event. Also in the hunt for medals are the two
girls - Gauri Hadkonkar and Riya Sawant - who
had both performed creditably in last year's
edition at Bangalore.

The team comprising 5 official entries and 15
donor entries is as follows -

Girls (Ivana Furtado, Gauri Hadkonkar, Riya
Sawant, Sonali Bandekar, Shivangi Behki,
Urvi Bandekar, Liesel Braganza and Apoorva
Naik).

Boys (Anirudh Bhat, Ritviz Parab, Saish
Bandodkar, Snehil Shetty, Sumukh Pinge,
Nitesh Berulkar, Rishubh Naik, Tatvesh Sawant,
Josiah Rebello, Kapil Pavse, Anant Prabhudesai
and Girish Kulkarni).

GSCA applauds coaching scheme (update)

The inclusion of Super Grandmaster Sasikiran
as one of those who volunteered to give coaching
under the AICF Scheme bears testimony to the fact
that this scheme will be a huge success in the
future. Altogether, four Grandmasters have come
forward to coach the young kids and that speaks
volumes of the goodwill that the AICF enjoys among
the player fraternity.

Disgruntled elements will always want to cast
aspersions. Notwithstanding that, the present
dispensation is marching from strength to strength.
We have won the Unified World Championship, the
Asian Team Championship, the Under 16 World Olympiad
as well as other numerous laurels for our country
in the past three years. Do we need to remind people
of the past AICF regime wherein out of frustration,
the players were finally forced to revolt under the
banner of the CPAI? That group wanted to take away
10 percent of the prize money and the present AICF
has reduced the registration fee by 50 percent. Is this
stark contrast not enough to show the difference between
the intentions of the two bodies?

Goan chess has emerged as a leading force under the
new dispensation and we pray that the good relations
between the AICF and the GSCA are maintained if not
strengthened with the passing of time. The allocation
of the National 'B' to Goa for the first time in the
history of the GSCA shows the confidence that it enjoys
within the echelons of the AICF body.

In the March 9th Executive Body meeting of the GSCA,
the following resolution was passed unanimously -


RESOLUTION

The Executive Body of the Goa State Chess Association
distances itself from the views of Mr. Shrikant Barve.
Whatever he has said is in his individual capacity.
The GSCA on the other hand congratulates the All India
Chess Federation for having come out with a scheme
which will make quality coaching affordable to even
the financially weak chess players. Everyone is not
superrich to bear the exorbitant rates charged by some
unrated coaches nowadays and here the AICF is providing
Grandmaster and International Master coaching at
affordable rates. We have confirmed information
from the AICF that some GMs are ready to even come
and coach for free. So what is the problem as far
as Mr. Barve is concerned?

Simultaneously, the GSCA would like to know where
the figure of 4-5 crores mentioned by Mr. Barve for
annual income of the AICF has been arrived at. We are
getting the Annual balance sheets of the AICF and the
figure is nowhere close to that mentioned in the newspaper.
Can Mr. Barve clarify this point please or else let
him publish an apology to the AICF?

A healthy relationship between the GSCA and the AICF
will only benefit the Goan chess fraternity. We are free
to voice our opinion whenever we want in a healthy democracy,
but as members of the Goa State Chess Association it is our
duty to first bring it up within the Association.
GSCA is of the unanimous opinion that chess in Goa
has been harmed by Mr. Barve's comments. In future,
whatever statements he makes, GSCA will not have
anything to do with it.

Media Committee for National 'B'

It was decided at the GSCA Executive
Committee meeting held at Bambolim on
the 6th of April that Shri Sharadchandra
Naik would be the Chairman of the Media
Committee for the Monginis National 'B'
Chess Championships to be held
from 15th to the 25th of September, 2008.

Shri Sharadchandra Naik is the President
of the Sports Journalists Association of
Goa (SJAG) and is also the UNI Correspondent
for Goa. AICF Vice President Sameer A.
Salgaocar expressed his delight that Shri
Naik has agreed to head the committee and
that itself was a 'big boost for the prospects
of the tournament'.

The list of members is as follows -

Sharadchandra Naik (Chairman)
Kishor Bandekar
V. Balakrishnan
Sachin Arolkar
Suhas Asnodkar
Raman Saripalle
Sameer A. Salgaocar