Goa State Chess Championship

By AICF Vice President Sameer A. Salgaocar

Joint Secretary of Goa State Chess Association Vasant Naik won the Goa State Chess Championship after beating Secretary Suhas Asnodkar in a nail biting finish in the last round played at the Sant Gadge Maharaj Hall, Porvorim. A cash prize of Rs. 5000 and a glittering trophy was awarded to Vasant whereas the runnerup Sumit received Rs. 3000 and a trophy.

Vasant finished with seven and a half points from the nine round event level with Sumit Asnodkar and Standrik Colaco. However, thanks to a better progressive score, Vasant finished as Champion whereas Sumit
and Standrik had to remain content with second and third place respectively.

Fourth place went to last year's champion Anurag Mhamal whereas the 5th and 6th place went to Swapnil Hoble and Niraj Saripally. The top six players along with double world under 8 girls champion Ivana Furtado and National Junior Girls Champion Bhakti Kulkarni are eligible to represent Goa in the upcoming Monginis 46th National 'B' Championship to be held at Zambaulim.

Industrialist Pravin Zantye was the Chief Guest and gave away the prizes. AICF Vice President Sameer A. Salgaocar was the Guest of Honour and GSCA Secretary Suhas Asnodkar proposed the vote of thanks. Dattaram Pinge and Tanay Kaisary were the arbiters for the event in which 134 total players participated.

Minor placings -
7. Avinash Malvankar
8. P.P. Insulkar
9. Manmesh Naik
10. Nandini Saripalli
11. Kelvin D'Lima
12. Rishubh Naik
13. Arvind Mhamal
14. Suhas Asnodkar
15. Amogh Namshikar

Special Prizes -
Under 7 - Nitish Belurkar
Under 9 - Snehil Shetty
Under 11 - Alfredo Menezes
Under 13 - Ritviz Parab
Under 15 - Rohan Ahuja