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MAPUSA: Top seed Devesh Anand Naik emerged victorious securing the title with a commanding lead over his closest competitors at the State Senior FIDE Rated Chess Championship 2025 held at the DMC College Hall, Khorlim, here, recently.
Naik remained unbeaten throughout the 9-round event, finishing with an impressive 8 points. He drew both his final-round games against Rishikesh Parab and Reuben Colaco. With this consistent and dominant display, Naik took home the championship trophy along with the winner’s prize of Rs 10,000.
Rishikesh Parab was declared runners-up with 7.5 points. Reuben Colaco and Chaitanya Patil scored seven points each but on tie Reuben was declared second runners-up and Chaitanya Patil finished fourth.
Other prize winners from fifth to 20th: Maxwell Raposo, Tanad Bandodkar, Mayanka Kurtikar, Rajveer Patil, Vihaan Tari, Aaryavrat Naik Desai, Sathvik Kerkar, Adarsh Patekar, Aayush Shirodkar, Sai Prabhakaran, Atharv Katkar, Yash Chodankar, Rishit Gawas, Vinay Sutar, Avnish Borker and Aashman Naik Desai.
Category prize winners in the U-7, U-9, U-11, U-13, U-15 boys and girls: Israa Rikarty, Asmi Terse, Navya Narvekar, Samrithi Malkar, Shreesha Ghadi, Trisha Patekar, Aaaradhya Dessai, Aarohi Kanekar, Shuban Malkar, Tejas Chodankar, Vipul Kadam, Shashwat Upadhye, Rudreshan Rajesh, Shourya Kapdi, Rejmaon Fernandes, Shivam Gaitonde, Nirbhay Gaude, Shrihan Chougale, Ved Narvekar, Mahesh Vaigankar, Prajay Maldar, Aaradhya Rane, Gabriel Ferrao and Yajwari Shetye.
Best women: Saisha Patekar, Veteran: Kanta Patekar and Beat Unrated Rhys Carvalho. The first four players will represent Goa at National Senior at Guntur, Andra Pradesh.
The tournament witnessed an enthusiastic turnout of 93 participants, including 42 FIDE-rated players, reflecting a high level of competition and sportsmanship. A total prize fund of ₹50,000 and 51 trophies were distributed among the winners.
Chief guest Chairman of Dyanprasarak Mandal Kiran Shirodkar distributed the prizes to the winners and runners-up in the presence of GCA President Ashesh Keni, BTCA President Ashish Shirodkar, GCA Treasurer Vishwas Pilankar, BTCA Secretary Ramchandra Parab, BTCA Treasurer Suraj Naik, Chief Arbiter IA Arvind Mhamal, Sachin Arolkar, Rajaram Narvekar, Govind Shirodkar and other distinguished guests.