Leon, who is a student of Sharda Mandir High School, Mira Mar and player from Tiswadi Taluka Chess Association, scored a clean sweep of seven points in seven rounds to remain unbeaten in the open category.
In the girl’s category, second seeded Swera Braganca goodwill ambassador of Geno Pharmacuticals and student of Our Lady of the Rosary High School, Dona-Paula clinched the title by scoring five points from the same number of rounds. She defeated Alaina Pereirain the last round with black pieces in Italian opening to remain unbeaten in the tournament.
Results. Open category: 1st Leon Mendonca, 2nd Akhilesh Nigaley, 3rd Akhilesh Nigaley, 4th Barde Om, 5th Fadte Rudresh, 6th Thorat Sanjay, 7th G Madhavan and 8th Thevar Vinayaka.
In the girls section: 1st Swera Braganca, 2nd Gunjal Chopdekar, 3rd Hadkonkar Tanvi, 4th Alaina Pereira, 5th Shetye Charuta and 6th Alaya D’Cruz.
Two players in both the categories have been selected for Nationals to be held in Orissa.
MLA Subhash Phaldesai was the chief guest and distributed the prizes in the presence of GCA vice-president Ashesh Keni, Alka Phaldesai, president of QTCA Subhash Chandra Naik, president of BTCA Satyawan Harmalkar, secretary of QTCA Sanjay Kavlekar and other dignitaries.
