PANJIM: The Goas young chess players Netra Savaikar and Sairaj Vernekar gave their best performance at the recently concluded U-9 National Chess Championship, held at Haryana.
Netra Savaikar ( 1208) bagged 8th place and Sairaj Vernekar bagged 11th place in the open category.
Netra player of Ponda Taluka Chess Association was 3rd seeded for this event as she won 7 matches and drew 2 to fetch 8 points in 11 round. She is a 4th student of GVM’s Ameida School. Sairaj, player of Salcete Taluka was on 19th seed for this event. He is a student of Manovikas School, Margao and Coached by SAG Senior Coach Mr Sanjay Kavlekar, as he too won 7 matches, drew 2 to get 8 points in 11 rounds.
The overall performance of Goan team was satisfactory considering very large participants from all over India. In open category in all 261 players participated wherein the following is the standings of Goan Team: Sairaj Vernekar 11th place with eight points, Joy Kakodkar 31st place with 7.5 points, Love Kakodkar 100th place with six points, Vivvan Ballikar 132nd place with 5.5 points and Vincente Fernadnes 192nd place with 4.5 points.
Om Kadam of Maharashtra won the championship in open category with 9.5 points while Anupam Shreekumar of Kerala clinched the girls’ title with nine points.
