Goan girls bag team medals
All the three Goan girls - Riya Sawant, Ivana Furtado and Bhakti Kulkarni -
participating in the World Youth Chess Championships helped the country to
bag team medals just as India dominated proceedings on the final day of the
toughly contested tournament.
In the Girls Under 8 Section, Riya Sawant helped the Indian team to edge
out hosts Vietnam to clinch the Gold Medal in the team event. India and
Vietnam both finished on and identical tally of points, but India got the
Gold via a superior tiebreak. The United States of America got the Bronze
in this section. Riya finished 10th in her section which is great
considering that she finished fourth in Asian Youth in Iran earlier this
year.
In the Under 10 Girls section, Double World Under 8 Girls Champion Ivana's
smart recovery towards the end of the tournament helped India to bag the
Gold medal just inching out narrowly hosts Vietnam. The Woman Candidate
Master was in her elements as she beat Russian Ayna Egorova in the last
round and she herself finished 11th in the individual section. Ivana may
have set a record of sorts as she won her third Gold in WYCC and she has one
in each of the three Championships - Batumi, Antalya and Vung Tau!
In the Under 16 Girls Section, National Junior Girls Champion Bhakti
Kulkarni aided India to bag the Silver again behind hosts Vietnam by a
margin of 1.5 points. Austria bagged the Bronze medal in this section. The
coach of the three players Dronacharya Awardee Raghunandan Gokhale
expressed satisfaction with the outcome and said that in the coming years
the trio will 'win many more laurels for the country and Goa'.
In the Individual events, India also put up an excellent show. Padmini Rout
(Girls Under 14), Sayantan Das (Boys Under 12), Vidit Gujarathi (Boys Under
14)
and B. Adhiban (Boys Under 16) all won the Gold Medals in their respective
categories. Incidentally all four Gold Medallists participated in the
National 'B' Championships which were conducted last month in Zambaulim,
Goa.
Final Medals Tally
India 4-2-2 (Ind) 8-1-2 (Team) 12-3-4 (Total)
Vietnam 1-1-0 3-4-3 4-5-3
Croatia 2-0-0 0-0-1 2-0-1
SOURCE: Sameer A. Salgaocar - President - Goa State Chess Association; Vice
President - All India Chess Federation
