PANJIM: IM Swayams Mishra of Orissa became the champion of 1st Deltin all-India open rapid chess tournament, organized by Chanakya Chess Club in affiliation with Tiswadi Taluka Chess Association (TTCA) under the aegis of Goa Chess Association (GCA), at Community hall, Mala, here, recently.
He drew the last round with IM Swapnil Dhopade of Railways to score nine points out of 10 to become the champion.
IM Narayanan Srinath and IM Nitin S both from Tamil Nadu won the second and third places with nine and eight points respectively.
Goa’s WGM Bhakti Kulkarni settled for the ninth place with 7.5 points. She was also the highest placed amongst the women players. The field was so strong that GM Sriram Jha of LIC had to be content with the 30th place with 6.5 points.
Among other prizes, Niraj Saripalli, CM Nitish Belurkar and Wilson Cruz won the first three prizes for the best Goan players in the open category while Nandini Saripalli, Urvi Bandekar and Pranali Naik won the first three prizes for best Goan women player.
The prizes were distributed by Pawan Kumar, secretary, Mines, Civil aviation, Provedoria and I&B in the presence of Kishor Bandekar, joint secretary AICF and secretary of GCA; Ramdas Sawant, treasurer of GCA, Sanjay Belurkar, secretary TTCA, Rajeev Sahakari and Salil Ghate, tournament directors.
