Ivana, Anurag finish in the prize list!

Former Double World Under 8 Girls Champion
Ivana Maria Furtado and former Goa State Champion
Anurag Mhamal did Goa proud by finishing in the
prize list of the National Under 13 Chess Championships
which concluded at the Vellore Institute of Technology
at Vellore today.

In the Girls Section, Ivana finished 13th with a tally
of 7.5 points. More importantly she finished ahead
of arch rival M. Mahalakshmi of Tamil Nadu who had
won the Asian Under 10 Girls Championship earlier
this year. Dempo Brand Ambassador Ivana also finished
ahead of former World Champion Cholleti Sahajasri of
Andhra Pradesh and considering that this category is
two age groups higher than her usual category (Under 9)
this has to be considered as a tremendous performance.

In the Boys section, Anurag finished with 8 points and
in 14th place. At one stage he was 4 points after four
rounds and in the joint lead. Nevertheless, this is a creditable
showing by the student of Akash Thakur of Maharashtra.
He finished ahead of Asian Under 12 Champion Girish
Kaushik of Karnataka which goes to show the relative
strength of this highly competitive tournament.

Next up for Woman Candidate Master Ivana will be the
prestigious Singapore Open and the Malaysian
Open tournament next month. She will be accompanied by
her coach Woman Grandmaster Aarthie Ramesh and we
can expect another terrific performance from her!

Other Goan participants (with points tally and final placing)

Girls

Sampada Barve 5.5 pts 64th place
Riya Sawant 5.5 pts 66th place

Boys

Niraj Saripalli 7.5 pts 31st place
Pranav Zantye 6.5 pts 68th place
Anirudh V. Bhat 6.5 pts 77th place

Anurag Mhamal & Riddi Zantye clinch U-13 Chess State titles

Anurag Mhamal & Riddhi Zantye won U-13 Boys
& Girls Chess State selection respectively
conducted by Bambolim Chess Club & Super
Sports Club in association with Goa State
Chess Association at Mahalaxmi Hindu Vachan
Mandir, Mala, Panaji.

Anurag Mhamal scored 6.5 points out of 7 rounds.
He won 6 games and drew one to claim the title.
Incidentally, Anurag has won the U-13 Chess State
Championship for the 4th time in five years
(2004, 2006, 2007 & 2008). He is presently being
coached by Akash Thakur of Nagpur. Pranav Zantye
scored 6 points from 7 rounds to finish second.

In the Girls category, 6 1/2 year old Riddhi
Zantye claimed her first title by defeating 4
players and drawing with two. She defeated the
top seed and the only rated player Sampada
Barve (elo 1634). Ridhi is being coached by
Dronacharya Awardee Raghunandan Gokhale.
Unrated Gauri Hadkonkar finished second.

Prize Winners

Boys
1) Anurag Mhamal
2) Pranav Zantye
3) Niraj S
4) Saeesh Bandodkar
5) Cyrus Pereira
6) Amod Kolvalkar

Girls
1) Riddhi Zantye
2) Gauri Hadkonkar
3) Sampada Barve
4) Pushpita Singh

Naresh Sawal, Chairman of the Pirna Urban
Cooperative Society was the Chief Guest and
Mahesh Candolkar, President of the Mahalaxmi
Hindu Vachan Mandir was the Guest of Honour.
Also present were Sameer A. Salgaocar AICF
Vice President and GSCA President, Suhas
Asnodkar GSCA Secretary, Narayan Pednekar and
Arvind Mhamal GSCA Joint Secretary.

Prizes worth Rs. 9500/- and trophies were
given to the winners.
Anurag Mhamal, Pranav Zantye, Niraj Saripalli
and Anirudh Bhat in the boys section, whereas
Sampada Barve & Ivana Furtado will represent
Goa for U-13 girls section in the upcoming
Nationals to be held at Vellore, Chennai
from 13th to 22nd Nov. 2008.


(courtesy- Arvind Mhamal, Jt. Secretary, GSCA)