Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SM/NR)

Mangalore, Jun 11:  Vishwas Saralaya of MGM, Udupi stole the spotlight by lifting the 'Elite Club' Trophy in Rapid Chess Challenge organised by Derik's Chess School, Mangalore. He scored 4.5 points in 5 rounds in Elite group participated by many FIDE rated players along with strong senior & junior players. Prakash Rao of Canara College scored 3.5 points and was placed second due to his better progressive points over Nihal Manjunath of Lourdes Central School, who had to be content with the 3rd spot.

Under 15 boys Yashas Salian of Lourdes Central School secured first place with 4 pts. 2nd place was bagged by Suraj Prabhu of Canara School with 4 pts. Bhargavi Alva of St Agnes High School (H.S) won first place with 4 points while Riola D’Souza of SVS, Bantwal secured second place with 4 points in the Under 15-girls category.

Avinash R U of Sharada Vidyalaya won the first place with 4.5 points in Under 13 boys category while second place was bagged up by Govind of SVS, Bantwal with 4 pts. In the girls Under 13 category Kripa Jain of SVS, Bantwal won the first place with 4 pts and Pooja Shekar from Canara H.S took the second spot with 3 points.

Denzil Cutinho from Holy Family, Suratkal with 4 points won the first place and second place was bagged by Arun S of DKZPKM Higher Primary, Keyyor with 4 pts in Under-11 boys’ category. Amongst under-11 girls’ category, Mahima Khandige of St Agnes Higher Primary (HP) secured first place with 4.5 pts and Chrisel Pais from Ladyhill Eng Pry bagged the second spot with 4 points.

In Under 9 boys group, Gopalakrishna Nayak from Canara Pry secured first place with 5 pts and second place was bagged by Utkarsh Salian of Lourdes Central School with 4 points. Under-9 girls’ first place was bagged by Andrea D'Souza from St Agnes Eng Pry with 5pts and Rashmi Kamath from Canara Eng Pry secured second place with 4 pts.

In Under 7 boys, first place was bagged by Vivek K. M of K V with 4 points while the second place was secured by Sharan Rao of St Theresa with 4 points.  Amongst Under 7 girls, first place was secured by Reesha Shenoy from St Mary's Eng Pry with 4.5 pts and Soumya G Pai from Canara Eng Pry secured second place with 3.5 pts.

Prizes to the winners were distributed by M. Maheshwara Rao, Deputy Commissioner, D.K; B Dayananda, Superintendent of Police, D.K; Ganesh Rao, Chairman of Karavali Group of Colleges; chess promoter Srinivas Nayak Indaje ; Sister Leena Rodrigues, Headmistress of Lourdes High School. Deric Pinto and Prasanna Rao, Administrators, DCS; Guruprasad K, DCS Coordinator were also present on the dais, in this occasion.

On the occasion, gold medalist in World School Chess Championship Adith Jagadish and Shabdik Varma who recently were a joint winner in Under 10 in Sangli Chess Festival were honored by the eminent guests.

Speaking on the occasion, Deputy Commissioner Rao, congratulated the players and also hoped that a pool of Grand Masters from DCS shall emerge in future.

SP Dayananda opined that there were plenty of potential chess players who will emerge from Dakshina Kannada coastal belt, as this place was rich in intellect.