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)