PANAJI
IM Nitish Belurkar of Goa was crowned Champion at the 20th Shri. Maheshwaranand Sarswati Memorial Open Rapid Rating Chess tournament held in Pune. A total of 446 players representing 5 Federations, India, Israel, Germany, USA and Netherlands participated.
Nitish defeated IM Sammed Shete and FM Nikhil Dixit amongst others to remain undefeated and was sole leader with a score of 8.5 points out of 9 and a rating gain of 28 points.
FM Akash Dalvi and FM Suyog Wagh with 8 points were placed 2nd and 3rd respectively Top seed GM Abhimanyu Puranik finished 5th with 7.5 points. IM Ameya Audi of Goa was placed 9th with 7.5 points. Goan player Anish Naik defeated 2 IMs to score 6.5 points and was placed 33rd.
Prior to this tournament, Nitish had a 14th place podium finish in the 3rd Presidents Cup International Tournament in Uzbekistan scoring 6 points with a rating gain of 7 points , wherein amongst others , he defeated GM Madaminov Mukhiddin [2501) of Uzbekistan and drew with GM Abhimanyu Puranik (2652) of India.
