MONDAY, MAY 06, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa’s FM Nitish Belurkar created history after he was crowned the champion at Shri. Manohar Parrikar International open Grandmaster online Chess tournament, Category E , chess 960 format , which saw a record participation of 307 players from Russia, Israel, Ukraine, Iran, Uzbekistan, Indonesia, USA, Canada and host nation India.
In chess 960 format, the complexity is increased by variation in piece structure in the opening and the time limit is 3 minutes with 2 second increment for each game. Nitish scored 10.5 points out of 13 and was awarded the Gold medal. Nitish is a Geno Pharmaceuticals brand ambassador.
IM Taher Theolifus (2455) of Indonesia was crowned the champion and was awarded the gold medal in Category D, which is a bullet format. This category saw a record participation of 373 players also from the above nations. Bullet format is a faster version of the game with a time limit of 1 min and increment of 1 seconds.
GM Sindarov Zavokhir (2557) of Uzbekistan won silver while IM David Grodetzky (2489) of Israel won bronze medal in the D category. In the E category, GM Diptiyan Ghosh (2541) of West Bengal, India won silver while FM Aaryan Varshney (2277) of Delhi, India won the bronze medal.
Among the other Goan players, IM Ameya Audi was placed 15th and Ritviz Parab 16th in main prize list in category E while Ritviz Parab, Mandar Lad and Devesh Naik were placed 18th , 19th and 20th in the main prize list in category D.
President of GCA, Power Minister Nilesh Cabral and Secretary, GCA and Treasurer, AICF, Kishor Bandekar congratulated FM Nitish Belurkar for being crowned champion at Manohar Parrikar International open Grandmaster online Chess tournament, 2020, Category E.
A total of 5 categories A, B,C, D and E is scheduled in this Manohar Parrikar online GM Tournament by Goa Chess Association. While B, C, D and E categories have already been conducted, category A, which will be the main Grandmaster section for players above ELO 2000 will be conducted on October 2.
