World Under 8 Girls Champion Ivana Furtado of Goa found herself in joint second place after the sixth round of the National Under 9 Chess Championships being played at Bangalore.
Ivana defeated Megha Gupta of Gujarat in the sixth round. This was the same girl who had defeated topseed Sweety Patel (ELO 1983) in the first round so Ivana could not take any chances. She eventually prevailed in a tough battle to bag her 5th point in 6 rounds. G.K. Monnisha (ELO 1705) of Tamil Nadu is in the lead with 5.5 points. Ivana and 4 others are in the second spot with 5 points each. Goa's Gauri Hadkonkar (4 points) and Riya Sawant (3.5 points) are also doing well. Ivana faces the leader in a crucial encounter in the 7th round. In the boys section, two Goans are in joint 5th place surprisingly with 5 points each. They are M. Harikrishnan (ELO 1730) and Rakshit Rai (ELO 1656). Hopefully, one or both of these can qualify for the internationals by placing in the top 3.
