MARGAO
Goan players Ritviz Parab, Mandar Lad and Sairaj Vernekar performed well at the 5th LBHM All India Open Fide Rated chess championships held in Pune.
IM aspirant Ritviz won the 2nd runner-up place in Open category, Mandar Lad won the 1st place in under 1900 category and Sairaj Vernekar won 2nd place in under 1600 category. Sixth seeded Ritviz drew against top-seeded GM Mitraba Guha of West Bengal and second-seeded GM Venkatesh of Tamil Nadu. He received a trophy and a cash prize of Rs 1,01,111. Ritviz had recently won the Late Premlata Rapid Rating tournament in Margao and continues his good form.
Mandar was seeded 27th in the tournament. He defeated IM Anup Deshmukh 2178 of Maharashtra. He increased his ELO Rating by 40 points. Mandar received a trophy and a cash prize of Rs 50,000. Sairaj Vernekar was seeded 78th in the tournament. He drew with FM Gaikwad Siddhant of Maharashtra and Vigneshwaran S of Tamil Nadu. He defeated higher seeded Parekh Vishrut of Gujrat and Nagare Kaivalya of Maharashtra. Sairaj increased his ELO Rating by 120 points. He received a trophy and cash prize of Rs 25,000.
The tournament was organised by Halkude under the auspices of All India Chess Federation and Maharashtra Chess Association. In all, 460 players from India, USA, Syria and Sri Lanka participated in the tournament which included 2 Grandmasters, 7 International Masters and 2 Fide Masters. The tournament was won by IM Mohammed Nubair Shah Shaikh of Maharashtra.
