Goa’s first Grandmaster Anurag Mhamal has opened his campaign in the 1st Goa International Open Chess Tournament with a win against Bidhar Rutumbara and followed it up with a win against Cholleti Sahajasri. During the course of the tournament, Anurag spoke exclusively to Joel Andrade.
Anurag, who cherishes his Asian Junior Blitz gold medal and the Grandmaster title in 2017, is happy that Goa has finally organized a chess tournament of international stature and feels that this tourney will give the sport its much needed boost. “Considering that this is the first Grandmaster tournament in the State, and has a strong field of players, chess will definitely be publicized in the State and will catch a lot of local attention. Hopefully, this will lead to more people taking up the sport,” Anurag, who is rated 2495, said.
Anurag, who will soon play a tournament in the UK, is thankful to his sponsor for helping him get quality coaching and travel around the world for tournaments which has helped him gain a good rating. “I am very grateful to the Dempo family for helping me financially. Under the Dempo Goodwill Ambassador Programme, I have gained a lot of exposure in terms of coaching as well as playing in different tournament. I play around 8-10 tournaments in a year,” Anurag, whose most cherished victory is against Baadur Jobava, said.
Anurag, who is currently training on his own, follows different training schedules throughout the year. “My training schedule is a mixed bag. I try to follow all the top games of the day and then get a few hours of self study. Also, I play a few games,” Anurag, who prefers playing in the classical format, went on to say.
Anurag, who was recently praised by Viswanathan Anand, praised GCA for their excellent work in promoting chess in the State and appealed to them to provide better quality coaching facilities for the highly enthusiastic players in the State. “GCA has had a very progressive term. This tournament has given our players an opportunity to rub shoulders with some very good players besides witnessing chess at a very high level. I request GCA to provide better quality coaching facilities in order to see greater results,” Anurag said in conclusion.
Anurag maintains 100% record, climbs to fifth spot
PANAJI: Goa’s GM Anurag Mhamal climbed to fifth position at the end of Round 4 following his fourth round win over Fide Master Deshpande Aniruddha at 1st Goa International Open Chess Tournament organised by the Goa Chess Association and played at Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium, Taleigao on Monday.
By virtue of this win, Anurag is now the only Goan to record a 100 percent win in Category A. “It’s always good to have a positive start. I’m looking forward to my next round as it’s against Armenia’s GM Ter Sahakyan Samvel,” said Goa’s 1st GM Anurag Mhamal.
Earlier, Anurag beat Goa’s Ritviz Parab in Round 3. But following his loss against Goa’s only GM, Ritviz showed his desire to make his name among the best as he moved on to 3 points with his win over Manish Kumar.
Meanwhile, Woman Grandmaster Bhakti Kulkarni came back strongly following her defeat in Round 3. Bhakti earlier lost against Soham Datar but beat Tanmay Chopra to move on to 2.5 points.
In Round 3, Ameya put up a brave fight before going down against GM Amonatov Farrukh and he drew with Barath Kalyan N in Round 4 to move on to 2.5 points.
Among other Goans, Nitish Belurkar is on 2.5 points while Niraj Saripalli is on 2 points and Nandhini Saripalli is on 1.5 points.
Meanwhile, on top boards, GM Kravtsiv Martyn was held by GM Neverov Valerity
On board 2 and 3, there were unexpected results as Amonatov Farrukh was beaten by Bangladesh GM Rahman Ziaur while Popov Ivan was beaten by Kasparav Serey. Idani Pouya beat Himanshu Sharma. Idani Pouya is on top position with four points followed by Ter S Samvel, Deepan Chakkravarthy and Rahman in the second to fourth positions.
In B category, Goa’s Anirudh V Bhat is on 5.5 points on 56th position and
Parsekar Anirudh is on 63rd position with 5.5 points. Anvesh Bandekar, Sirsat Shekar, Gaude Sachin and
Suyan Belurkar are on five points. Swayam Naik and Tanad Bandodkar are on 4.5 points.
