Cyrus, Sukanya top

PANJIM, SEPT 20
Cyrus Pereira remained undefeated winning both games alongwith Niraj Saripalli, but he won the under-17 State chess championship title on toss as both progressive and cut-progressive scores were tied in under-17 chess tournament.
In the penultimate round, Cyrus got the better off Alfredo Menezes and Pranav Zantye in the final round to score 6.5 points. Niraj Saripalli beat Ritviz Parab in the final round. He also scored 6.5 points but was declared 2nd on toss.
Adrian Almeida beat Suyan Belurkar to clinch the 3rd spot. The 4th place went to Ritviz Parab, 5th to Alfredo Menezes and 6th to Brandon Peroz.
In the girls category, Sukanya Chari defeated Gauri Hadkonkar in the fourth round and drew with Riddhi Zantye in the 5th to remain unbeaten with 4.5points to win the girls title. Nandini Saripalli (4 points) beat Sakshi Gaonkar to clinch the 2nd position. The 3rd place went to Gauri Hadkonkar with 3.5 points. Riddhi Zantye got the 4th position. In all, 58 players participated in the open section and 16 players in the girls section.
Standrik Colaso was the chief arbiter of the tournament. At the prize distribution ceremony held after the last round,
Dr Baban Parulekar, President of Janata Vachanalaya, Ashesh Keni, President, Goa State Chess Association, Dr R V Deo, founder president of Goa State Chess Association gave away the prizes.
Arvind Mhamal, Secretary GSCA, M R Naik, President of Vasco-Da-Gama Chess Club compered. P P Insulkar proposed the vote of thanks. The tournament was organised by Vasco-da-Gama Chess Club under the auspices of Goa State Chess Association. The top two players in the open and girls category will represent Goa at the U-17 Nationals in Chakradarpur, Jharkhand from October 6-14.