PANJIM: Gauri Hadkonkar beat Aishwarya Thorat in the finals of Late Shripad Vishnu Kamat Tarcar memorial championship to emerge women’s State champion organized by JCI St Inez under the aegis of Goa Chess Association and in collaboration with SAG at Indoor Stadium Conference hall, Campal, here.
Gauri, a student of Our Lady of the Rosary HS, Dona Paula, scored 5.5 points out of a possible six and remained unbeaten throughout to reclaim her title which she had last won in 2010. Aishwarya Thorat, who was leading the race at the end of round five, emerged runner-up with five points. Riddhi Zantye and Urvi Bandekar also with five points each but had to settle for the third and fourth spots respectively.
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Gunjal Chopdekar, Sakshi Naik Gaonkar and Aditi Prabhugaokar (4.5 points each) finished fifth, sixth and seventh respectively while the eighth to 10th prizes were won by Alaya D’Cruz, Pradnya Kakodkar and Reema Naik (4 points each).
Other prizes — Outstanding under-7: Sayuri Naik. Outstanding under-9: Alaina Pereira. Outstanding under-11: Dipshika Karmalkar. Outstanding under-13: Sanskriti Naroji. Outstanding local participants: Ritu Kumari and Pratibha (both from Ideal HS).
The tournament was conducted by D Pinge (chief arbiter) and was assisted by Gautam Tari and Avinash Malvankar.
Vinay Tendulkar, State BJP president and president of Goa Chess Association (GCA) was the chief guest and distributed the prizes alongwith Kishor Bandekar, secretary, Chaitanya Tarcar of Virashree Hotels and P Balakrishnan treasurer, Tiswadi Taluka Chess Association.
Earlier, Siddharth Sakhardande, former president of JCI St Inez welcomed. Championship coordinator Sandeep Heble proposed the vote of thanks.
The top four players of the championship will be eligible to play at the National Women’s Challengers to be held in Thrissur, Kerala.
