PANAJI
Shane Braganca of Don Bosco High School, Panaji won the State U-17 Chess Championship cum selection tournament organised by Bicholim Taluka Chess Association (BTCA) under the aegis of Goa Chess Association (GCA), at Zantye Multipurpose College hall, Bicholim.
Ameya Audi of RMS College, Margao stood second while Aayush Shirodkar finished third. Shane scored 6.5 points in seven rounds while Ameya scored six points and Aayush scored 5.5 points. Other prize winners from the fourth to the sixth place were G Madhavan, Harsh Bhobe and Siddhesh Pednekar respectively. All three scored five points each.
In the girls section, WCM Swera Braganca won the championship with a score of 4.5 points out of the five rounds. Aditi Prabhugaonkar finished second while the third place went to Urvi Bandekar. They both scored four points each. Other prize winners from the fourth to the sixth places went to Riddhi Zantye, Aishwarya Thorat and Gunjal Chopdekar. They scored 3.5 points each.
Local prizes for Bicholim taluka players went to Anvesh Bandekar, Sharmad Bodke and Saili Naik. Local MLA Naresh Sawal was the chief guest and gave away the prizes to the winners in the presence GCA president Vinay Tendulkar, GCA secretary Kishor Bandekar, GCA vice-president Sagar Sakordekar, BTCA president Satyawan Harmalkar, BTCA secretary Vithal Vernekar, Bhagwan Harmalkar and chief arbiter Arvind Mhamal.
The first two selected players in each category will represent Goa at the nationals to be held in Bengaluru from October 3 to 11.
