Girish finishes with Silver

World Under 10 Champion Girish Kaushik (ELO 2085)
finished with a Silver medal after beating Sultan
Ibrahim of the U.A.E. in the last round of the
Asian Youth Chess Championships which
concluded in Al Ain, U.A.E. today.

Girish scored 7 out of possible 9 points to land in
a three way tie for the first place in the Boys Under
10 category. By virtue of a better progressive
score, compatriot Shardul Gagare (ELO 1995) was
adjudged the winner whereas unrated Le Huu Thai of
Vietnam had to remain content with the Bronze medal.
Girish's successive defeats in the 5th and 6th rounds at the
hands of Gagare and Oleg Artemenko of Uzbekistan prevented
him from dominating his category as he was expected to.

The other Karnataka lad M. Satvik did not fare so well
in the Boys Under 10 section and scored 4.5 points to
finish in 11th place. Last year, Satvik (ELO 1924) had finished with
a Bronze medal in the Asian Youth Championships which
were held in Tehran, Iran. Girish and Satvik were accompanied
by their coaches N. Sanjay and M.S. Thejkumar respectively
who are also from Karnataka.

India garnered four more Gold medals (besides Gagare's)
when Ivana Furtado in the Girls Under 8, B. Pratyusha
in the Girls Under 10, Priyanka Kumari in the Girls Under 12
and Revanth Reddy in the Boys Under 10 section all finished
top in their respective categories. India's tally of 10 medals
(5 Golds, 3 Silver and 2 Bronze) is in stark contrast to the 21
medals that they won in Tehran, Iran which included 8 Gold medals
in all the 8 categories.

Another feather in Niri’s cap

Niranjan C. Navalgund of M V Herwadkar English Medium School, Belgaum, has been recently awarded with ‘Krida Ratna’ for the outstanding performance in chess in a span of three years, by the State Sports Organisation, Bijapur.

Niranjan has many accomplishments under his belt till date. He completed the FIDE International Chess Rating at the Fide International Chess Tournament ‘Rochess’ held in Thane (Maharashtra). He has played with top class players and finished the rating in a single tournament.

Niranjan's initial rating was of 1977 as per the list published by the International Chess Federation/FIDE, and he went on to represent North Karnataka for two consecutive years. There he won bronze medal in 2005 and under his leadership, his school bagged 4th place at the National-level School Games. He has qualified for the National Sub-junior 2007 from Karnataka state to be held in Chennai in the first week of October.

This young champ has won the Ist prize in the District-level Inter-school Tournament organised by the Belgaum District Chess Association and Belgaum Lions Midtown held at Mahila Vidyalaya. In 2003 he bagged IInd prize at the National-level Chess Tournament held in Sangli (Maharashtra).

He secured 10th place in under-15 years group in Karnataka State Tournament held in Mysore. He has created chess blogs which claimed appreciation from chess lovers, International Masters and India’s youngest Grand Master Parimarjan Negi.

The Board of management (especially the Headmistress) of M V Herwadkar English Medium School, Belgaum has always supported Niranjan. They even assisted him to participate in the Asian Chess Championship 2005.

Apart from being a chess champ, Niranjan is an excellent poet. He has penned many poems in English and Kanadda. He has also participated in various drawing competitions and won many prizes.

Due to lack of sponsors, he had missed many Asian and other international tournaments in the past. Definitely with financial assistance, Niranjan will add many more feathers to his already crowded cap.

Girish headed for Al Ain!

World Under 10 Champion Girish Kaushik and Asian Under 8 Bronze
medallist M. Satvik are part of the Indian team which will be
participating in the Asian Youth Championships to be played in
Al Ain, U.A.E. from the 23rd to the 31st of August.

They will be attending a training camp prior to this camp in
New Delhi which will be arranged by the All India Chess Federation.
Let us hope that these boys bring more laurels for the state and
the Nation!