Children of all age groups, ,from tiny tots to teenagers, had a field day at Mind Spark— a day long rapid chess tournament held recently at Presidency School, Kelarai. In all 260 players representing 50 schools participated, including many Federation International des Echess (FIDE) rated players.
Smart start
It all began when Derik Pinto, administrator, Derik's Chess School declared ‘Mind Spark' open by making the first chess move that was responded to with a counter move by host school's chess champion Daniel D'Souza.
The tournament under rapid time control and in Swiss league format was conducted in six categories namely under nine, under 12 and under 16 (boys and girls). Each game, held in seven rounds in the Swiss league system with a timing of 20 minutes went on for over six hours across various age groups.
All the games were close with many winning joint spots. Sharada Vidyalaya, Mangalore, were declared the overall champions with seven students of the school bagging prizes.
The schools from the rural belt, Sri Venkatramana School (SVS), Bantwal and Sri Dharmasthala Manjunatheshwara (SDM) School, Ujire, won the first and second runners-up with three wins and one first prize, respectively.
Winners
Vanessa D'Souza from St. Agnes High School, Govind Prabhu from SVS, Bantwal and Reesha Shenoy from Carmel School with seven points each,
Shabdik Varma from SDM Ujire with 6.5 points, Swathi K M from Lady Victoria Higher Primary School with seven points and Siddarth Beedu from Vidyodaya School with six points emerged winners in the under 16 girls, under 16 boys, under 12 girls, under 12 boys, under nine girls and under nine boys, respectively.
Shalon Joanne Pais from St Agnes High School and Seema Crasta from SVS were the joint second place winners in the under 16 category, while Sakshath U K from Dandateertha and Anish Bhandary came second in under 16 category.
Andria D'Souza and Panchami Shenoy of St Agnes High Schoolwon the second place in under 12 girls, while Aditya Pai of St. Theresa's School and Arjun Adappaof Lourdes Central Schoolwere the joint second runners-up in under 12 boys.
Aditi Rao of Sharada Vidyalaya stood second in under nine girls with Daniel Marc D'Souza of Presidency School and Rajath Rao of Sharada Vidyalayawere joint winners of second place bagging the same place in under 9 boys.
