IM Nitish Belurkar.
Photo Credits: The Goan
PANAJI
International Master Nitish Belurkar (Rating 2426) was crowned champion at the 1st Indore Mayor’s Cup International Grandmaster Tournament 2023 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh.
The Goan player scored 8.5 points out of 10 rounds, remaining undefeated in this international tournament, wherein 217 players from nine federations including Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Poland, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, India and FIDE participated. The event had 16 GMs, 21 IMs, 7 WIMs, 13 FMs, 4 WFMs, 14 CMs and 2 WCMs.
Nitish, a GENO Pharmaceuticals brand ambassador and a student of SS Dempo College of Commerce and Economics, Cujira, had a rating gain of 24.3 points with a performance rating of 2611. He won a cash prize of Rs 3 lakh and a trophy. The tournament had a total prize fund of Rs 33 lakh. Nitish had a brilliant run in the tournament, defeating GM Savchenko Boris (FIDE, 2540), GM Deep Sengupta (India, 2484), FM Ritviz Parab (India, 2328) and FM Harsh Suresh (India, 2261) while drawing with GM Deepan Chakravarty (India, 2432), IM Aronyak Ghosh (India, 2534) and IM Viani D'Cunha (India) among others.
Among the other Goan players who participated, IM Ameya Audi (2387) and FM Ritviz Parab (2328) also achieved podium finish with seven points each and were placed 11th and 13th, respectively. Mandar Lad and Ethan Vaz scored 5.5 points each and were placed 80th and 82nd, respectively.
