Anant powered his way to his second State title. He continued his good form displayed at the Bangkok Open and the Mayor’s Cup. Anant overcame all odds against the toughest opposition by defeating two top seeds, Rajaryan Kuvelkar and M Barath and also the overnight leader, Ashton Dias in consecutive rounds to collect eight points from nine rounds, making him the only unbeaten player.
Gaurav Madkaikar and M Barath scored seven points each and finished on second and third place respectively after the tie-breaker. Aston Dias, Anish Prabhudesai and Saish Audi had 6.5 points each to finish fourth, fifth and sixth respectively.
In the girls section, Riddhi Zantye scored 4.5 points out of five rounds. Riddhi showed consistency of winning back to back two State championships. Swera Braganza and Aditee Prabhugaonkar scored four points each but due to better tie-break, Swera stood second while Aditee settled for the third spot.
Sakshi Gaonkar finished fourth with 3.5 points while Gayatri Thevar and Tanvi Hadkonkar finished fifth and sixth respectively. Anant, Gaurav, Riddhi and Swera will represent Goa in under-13 National to be held in October in Jharkhand.
Businessman Raju Shetgaonkar was the chief guest and gave away the prizes in the presence of GCA Secretary Kishor Bandekar, President of PTCA Prabhakar Shetye, Secretary Subhash Parsekar and others.
