Niraj scored 8.5 points out of 10 rounds. In the last round he played a fantastic game to outplay Maulik Raval of Gujarat.
Pradip Tiwari of DASCB too scored 8.5 points but finished second on tie-break.
Santosh Kashyap of Karnataka finished in the third spot with eight points. Maulik Raval finished fourth with eight points while Goa’s CM Nitish Belurkar settled for a fifth place with also eight points.
Later, Arvind Mhamal was felicitated by Rudreshwar Panjim for his contribution to chess.
Dr Satish Shetye, Vice Chancellor of Goa University was the chief guest and gave away the prizes in the presence of Shridhar Kamat, Sunil Naik, Vice President of Clube Tennis de Gaspar Dias; Dipak Amonkar, President of Rudreshwar Panjim; Satish Narvekar, Dnyaneshwar Naik, Nitesh Naik and others.
