Whiz Kid Furtado Back in the News

From The Navhind Times Ivana, Anirudh win U-9 crowns NT Sports Reporter Margao, Feb 5 Double World Under-8 champion Ivana Furtado created another record by winning the state Under-9 chess championships for the third consecutive time at BPS Club, Margao. In the last round Ivana beat Gauri Hadkonkar to finish with a perfect score of 5 out of 5 matches and Gauri had to remain content with the second place in a keenly contested event. Ivana was felicitated on the occasion by reputed table tennis coach Subodh Shevde and presented a cash award as well. She will now represent Goa along with 4 other girls - Gauri Hadkonkar (4), Riya Sawant (4), Saloni Bandekar (4) and Sakshi Prabhu (3) - in the upcoming national U-9 girls chess championship to be played in New Delhi from April 28. Riya Sawant, who stood in the top 10 in two National Championships in the same year, was also felicitated and was given a cash award. In the boys section, it was Anirudh Bhat of Margao with 6 points who stood first after drawing with Ritviz Parab in the crucial last round. Anirudh built up a strong position and actually was slightly better when Ritviz offered him a draw. He gleefully accepted as he knew that half a point was suffice to give him the title. The boys team that will represent Goa in the upcoming nationals includes Anirudh Bhat, Ritviz Parab (5.5), Saish Bandodkar (5.5) and Snehil Shetty (5). The tournament was jointly organised by Curchorem Chess Club and BPS Sports Club. Santosh George, who is the secretary of BPS Sports Club, was the chief guest. Dattaram Pinge and Avinash Malvankar were the chief arbiters and Standrik Colaco did the pairings. Incidentally, both the winners Ivana and Anirudh - are being coached by Dronacharya awardee Raghunandan Gokhale.