Thursday, December 04, 2008

Girish bags bronze in National Subjunior!

Karnataka's wonderboy and former World Under 10
Champion Girish Koushik added one more feather
in his cap by finishing third in the National
Subjunior Chess Championship which concluded at
Mangalore today. In an exciting finish, Girish needed
just a draw in the last round to emerge as Champion
but somehow lost his final encounter. He nevertheless
will be part of the Indian team to play in the next
World Under 16 Olympiad in Turkey and that will give
him some valuable experience.

Girish finished on eight and a half points
just a shade behind winner Aditya Udeshi of
Maharashtra and K. Priyadarshan (T.N.) who finished
with 9 points and were first and second respectively.
Girish, who is the current Asian Under 12 Champion
and National Under 11 Champion, will be gaining a
whopping 33 points from this tournament alone!

Other Karnataka boys to have done well were M.G. Gahan
and Antonio Viani D'Cunha who finished 9th and 10th
respectively. They both ended with eight points each
in their kitty. As in the National Under 13, Karnataka
had three boys in the top 10 and this reflects the trend
in the youngsters' performances and the determined efforts
of their coaches.

In the Girls section, Shrishti J. Shetty finished fifth
with 7.5 points. She will be gaining 16 points from
this event. Shrishti had earlier won the Silver medal in
the Commonwealth Chess Championships in New Delhi in
the Girls Under 14 section in 2007. Vanessa D'Souza,
who still has some more years to participate in this
category finished a creditable 18th with 6.5 points
with a gain of 24 elo rating points!

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Inauguration of National Subjunior, Mangalore

The 34th National Sub-junior and 25th Sub-junior girls' chess championship, jointly organized by the South Kanara District Chess Association (SKDCA) and the United Karnataka Chess Association (UKCA) under the auspices of the All India Chess Federation, was inaugurated at Subrahmanya Sabha on Wednesday November 26.

Earlier, addressing the large gathering after inaugurating the event, Sameer Salgaocar (Vice President, All India Chess Federation) said that a chess revolution is taking place in Karnataka as many tournaments, camps and chess related events have been organised in the state in a relatively short span of two years. 'At the same time, we have to support emerging players to achieve new heights', he added.

Four budding champions from the state - Girish Kaushik (Current Asian Under 12 Champion and National Under 11 Champion), Arjun Bharat (World Schools Under 9 Champion), K. Manasa (Nationals Girls Under 17 Bronze medallist) and Nihal Manjunath (Under 13 Bronze Medallist) were felicitated and presented momentoes and cash awards on this occasion. Shrikrishna Udupa of Shimoga, who won the Gold Medal for the Fourth Board in the 13th Olympiad for the Visually Impaired in Greece last month was also honoured at this ceremony.

R. Hanumantha (Secretary UKCA) thanked AICF for allocating this prestigious tournament to Karnataka and promised many more initiatives on the behalf of UKCA. He praised the efforts of the SKDCA team and its President M.S. Gururaj and singled them out for their 'dedication and total devotion to the sport'.
Thirunavakkarasu, Principal General Manager BSNL, and Sucharitha Shetty, President, Zilla Panchayat, played the inaugural chess moves. The diaries of SKDCA were released by Harikrishna Punaroor, former president, Kannada Sahitya Parishad. Atchutananda Reddy, President - United Karnataka Chess Association, released the calendar of SKDCA. M R Vasudeva, Director, Mangalore International Airport, presided over the function.

M.S. Gururaj (President SKDCA) welcomed the gathering and Mrs. Lydia D'Cunha (Secretary SKDCA) proposed the vote of thanks.

(Report prepared by R. Hanumantha (Secretary UKCA))