WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Young Grandmaster from Uzbekistan, Sindarov Zavokhir was crowned champion at Shri. Manohar Parrikar International Open Grandmaster online Chess Tournament 2020, Category A.
He scored 12 out of 15 rounds. This marks the culmination of a successful series of 5 online tournaments in which 1717 players from 11 countries , world over participated. The brand image created during the 1st two offline event conducted by Goa Chess Association helped, as there was an enthusiastic response from players from all over. While GM Sindarov Zavokhir was champion in category A (Above ELO 2000), Lazzari Sergio of Argentina was champion in Category B (Below ELO 2000), Nawin M S of Tamil Nadu, India was champion in Category C (Below ELO 1600), IM Taher Theolifus of Indonesia was champion in category D (Bullet format) and Goa’s own FM Nitish Belurkar was champion in category E (Chess 960 format). FM Nitish Belurkar thus became the first Goan player to become a champion in a Grandmaster Event. Besides cash prizes of Rs. 1,20,000, the Goa Chess Association has given medals with image of Shri. Manohar Parrikar engraved to the 1st three players in each category. This is the only online event where medals were given and the same was couriered to all winners.
IM Rathnavel V S from Chennai, India who also scored 12 points was placed second while IM Harikrishna A Ra also from Chennai, with 11.5 points settled for third.
Category “A” had 6 Indian Grandmasters, 6 foreign Grandmasters, 19 Indian International Masters, 4 foreign International Masters, 2 Women Grandmaster from India, 2 Women International Masters from India. National Rpaid & Blitz Champion Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram Vr was the top seed with a FIDE Elo rating of 2641 followed by Grandmaster Aleksandrov Aleksej of Belarus and International Master Zubritskiy Artyom of Russia were the 2nd & 3rd seeded players respectively. 28 players were around 2400 FIDE Elo rating.
Category “A” witnessed 387 players from 11 federations namely, Russia, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Canada, Kazakhstan, Peru, Surinam and host nation, India.
Among the Goan players, Ritviz Parab was highest with 9.5 points and was placed 34th in the main prize list. He was awarded the first place and gold medal in the Best Goan Category (Male). IM Ameya Audi also with 9.5 points was placed 36th and was awarded the second place and silver medal, while Devesh Naik was placed 40th, also with 9.5 points was awarded the third place and bronze medal in the Best Goan Category (Male). IM Bhakti Kulkarni also with 9.5 points was placed 42nd and was awarded the first place and gold medal in the Best Goan Category (Female) prize. Paarth Salvi and Vivaan Ballikar with 8.5 points each won the fourth and fifth place in Best Goan Category (Male) while in Best Goan Category (Female), Tanvi Hadkonkar with 7.5 points and Netra Savaikar with 7 points were awarded silver and bronze respectively. AIM Sayuri Naik with 7 points won Bronze medal in Best U-15, Girls Category while WCM Swera Braganca and Nidhi Gaude won the fourth and fifth places in the Best Goan Category (Female). 10 lucky winners were selected through draw of lots by tournament director, Kishor Bandekar. Ayush Shirodkar and Diya Sawal from Goa were among the lucky winners.
President of GCA, Power Minister, Nilesh Cabral and Secretary, GCA and Treasurer, AICF, Kishor Bandekar and Treasurer, Vishwas Pilankar expressed satisfaction at the success of the online Chess tournament.
