World Under 8 Girls Champion Ivana Furtado, her father Eli Furtado and GSCA
President Sameer A. Salgaocar attended World Champion Viswanathan Anand's
felicitation at Chennai. On this occasion, Anand was presented a cheque of
Rupees Ten lakhs by the AICF President N. Srinivasan in the presence of
Asian President Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, AICF Secretary D.V.
Sundar and cricketing legend and former Indian captain Rahul Dravid.
During the function, Ivana was asked to present a bouquet to the World
Champion. The crowd broke out into a spontaneous rapture as India's youngest
champion and the senior most champion came face to face on the stage. Ivana
also described this moment as 'absolutely thrilling' and her father Eli said
that she was simply 'overwhelmed'.
Ivana also got some time to spend with her idol and Super Grandmaster Koneru
Humpy before the function. Her coach Dronacharya Awardee Raghunandan Gokhale
also flew down from Mumbai for this momentuous occasion.
GSCA President Salgaocar gave the credit to AICF Secretary D.V. Sundar for
having initiated the novel scheme of having all of India's chess champions
visit Chennai for participating in Anand's moment of glory. 'When Ivana
went up on the stage, Goan chess had a moment that will be indelibly
imprinted on our minds', he later mentioned.
Photos:
http://www.goanet.org/gallery/thumbnails.php?album=32
