By Praful Zaveri in Mumbai
Final Day
FIDE Rated Vaibhav Saxena (2158) of Father Agnel High School, Vashi won the star-studded Open Boys Section of the Sixth Bournvita Inter School Chess tournament being held here at Prabhodhankar Thackeray Sports Complex. Vaibhav had the dubious distinction of finishing joint 1st in the last three editions but had to be satisfied with 2nd place after application of tie-break finally broke the jinx by winning the last round in style to finish with a score of 9.5/11.
Yashodhan Gogate of Bombay Scottish shocked last year’s champion, Sagar Sadavarte of Navi Mumbai to finish second. Top-seeded Amar Kamat never really got going and finished 4th behind Devandra Sathe who secured a creditable 3rd place. The 5th to 7th position were secured by Rohil Bhat, Kartik Vishwanathan and Aditya Vora respectively. This category had attracted a total of 268 entries, inclusive of three rated players.
The Boys Under-10 title was retained by Nitesh Bhat of Manjunath Vidyalaya, Dombivali, by turning the tables on the overnight leader Akshay Bhor. Nitesh was in must-win situation and he rose to the occasion to outclass his opponent. A dejected Akshay had to be satisfied with the 2nd place. Salim Ali Siddiq and Kashi Sah finished 3rd and 4th respectively. This section had received a total of 240 entries and included the youngest participant, 3 years 11 months old, Tanuj Dayal. The total entries received in all the four sections was 1240, making this event the biggest chess tournament for children in India and probably the world.
The team championship for the boys section was won by Father Agnel School, Vashi, for sixth successive year, The runners-up team was St. Stanislaus, Bandra. The championship in the girls section was also won by Father Agnel and the team from Gokuldham High School was placed 2nd.
The passion for chess was observed in many forms here and none can be better than the example of Nimish Shah. This 13 year old boy from Shardashram High School is a Thalessaemia Major Child. He is required to undergo blood transfusion every ten days and his blood transfusion was scheduled during the tournament. However, he requested the hospital authorities to re-schedule his transfusion in such a way that he can play all the eleven rounds. Vishy Anand, when he had come to Mumbai at the beginning of the year, happen to read the article on this child in one of the newspapers and immediately contacted him. Anand was so touched by the chess passion of this child, who is facing the biggest hurdle of his life with relative ease, and has promised him all the assistance so that he can go on with his chess. Anand is in touch with him regularly and send him mails. He had also send a gift of full CD box of chess playing programs to him. Nimish views his association with Anand as a biggest achievement is his life. This is the other side of Vishy Anand of which we are not aware!!
The winners in all the sections were given a simultaneous display by IM-Elect Vishal Sareen and 2 IM-Norm Holder Sriram Jha. Sriram won 19 of the 20 games and drew with Vaibhav Saxena whereas Vishal won 16, lost 2 to Nitesh Bhat and Gaurav Hingne and drew the remaining two.
The prize distribution ceremony was presided over by the former Mayor of Mumbai, Dr.Ramesh Prabhu, Commissioner of Police, Shri Jagannathan, Ramola Zaveri of the London School of Economics, Vishal Sareen and Sriram Jha.
The tournament was conducted smoothly without any protest by the Bombay Chess Association with Shri D.B. Pulekar as chief arbiter.
Prize Winners:
Boys Under-10
1. Nitesh Bhat 9.5 Manjunath Vidyalaya
2. Akshay Bhor 9 IES
3. Salim Ali Siddiq 9 Father Agnel
4. Kashi Sah 9 Father Agnel
5. Snehal Bhosale 8.5 Guru Nanak
6. Meghan Gupte 8.5 S.I.A.P.
7. Parth Agarwal 8.5 Gokuldham
8. Amogh Kamli 8.5 North Bombay Welfare
9. Suraj Borate 8.5 St. Lawrence
10. Vivektesh Agwan 8 A.K. Joshi
Boys Open
1. Vaibhav Saxena 9.5 Father Agnel
2. Yashodhan Gogate 9.0 Bombay Scottish
3. Devendra Sathe 8.5 Father Agnel
4. Amar Kamat 8.5 Chandrakant Patkar
5. Rohil Bhat 8.5 Abhinav Vidyalaya
6. Kartik Vishwanathan 8.5 Jamnabai Naree
7. Aditya Vora 8.5 Don Bosco
8. Sagar Sadavarte 8.0 Navi Mumbai
9. Anirddh Unni 8.0 Father Agnel
10. Sarvesh Karambelkar 8.0 Tilak Nagar