Goa’s Ethan Vaz and Evan Telles excelled at the Commonwealth Chess Championships held from 16th to 26th May in Sri Lanka. Representing the country, the highly talented Goan duo bagged a collective tally of 5 medals.
IM Ethan Vaz, who is the National U-19 Champion, won the U-20 standard gold, U-20 rapid gold and U-20 blitz silver.
In the standard event, IM Ethan Vaz drew with GM Shyam Nikhil (2446) (Ind) ,IM Liyanage (2429)(Sri), GM Deepan Chakravarthy (2404)(Ind), and beat IM Goutham Krishna(2433)(Ind). In the last round, he got the better of WCM Mary Ann Gomes (2258)(Ind) to stand in overall 4th position to clinch silver medal in U-20 category.
In the Rapid event, IM Ethan drew with GM Iniyan Pa (Ind) (2452) in the final round to stand overall 4th to clinch the u20 gold. In Blitz, Ethan Vaz stood overall 3rd and won the u20 gold.He beat GM Srihari LR (2318)(Ind) & FM Sakline Mostafa (Bang).
Evan Telles, who is National U-8 Champion, Evan (1577) clinched the Rapid U-8 title winning all the rounds beating Leo Cordue of New Zealand in the final round. In Blitz under-8 event, Evan drew only one match winning the rest and dominating the tournament.
Ethan and Evan were given a warm welcome last night as Ashesh Keni, Secretary of Goa Chess Association ,Vice-President GCA Damodar Zambaulikar, Vice-President GCA Sagar Sakordekar, coach of Evan – Prakash Singh, International Arbiter Jostna Saripalli, STCA EC memeber, received the duo at the airport.
