IM Nitish Belurkar of Goa was crowned champion at the 20th Shri Maheshwaranand Sarswati Memorial Open Rapid Rating Chess tournament held in Pune. A total of 446 players representing 5 federations – India, Israel, Germany, USA and Netherlands participated.
Nitish defeated IM Sammed Shete and FM Nikhil Dixit amongst others to remain undefeated and was sole leader with a score of 8.5 points out of 9 and a rating gain of 28 points. FM Akash Dalvi and FM Suyog Wagh with 8 points were placed second and third respectively. Top seed GM Abhimanyu Puranik finished fifth with 7.5 points.
Goa’s IM Ameya Audi was placed 9th with 6.5 points; while Anish Naik, who defeated 2 IMs to score 6.5 points, was placed 33rd.
Prior to this tournament, Nitish had a 14th place podium finish in the 3rd Presidents Cup International Tournament in Uzbekistan scoring 6 points with a rating gain of 7 points, wherein amongst others , he defeated GM Madaminov Mukhiddin (2501) of Uzbekistan and drew with fellow Indian, GM Abhimanyu Puranik (2652), stated a press release.
