Nitish Belurkar wins 1st Unity Club Rapid Rating Open 2023

by Shahid Ahmed - 21/05/2023

IM Nitish Belurkar, IM Ameya Audi and Ethan Vaz scored 8/9 each at 1st Unity Club Rapid Rating Open 2023. Nitish won the tournament due to better tie-breaks. Ameya and Ethan were adjudged second and third respectively. The champion of the event, Nitish drew against the eventual second runner-up, Ethan in the penultimate round. Both of them remained undefeated. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹155000. The top three prizes were ₹30000, ₹20000 and ₹10000 along with a trophy each respectively. The two-day rapid rating tournament was organized by Unity Club in association with Salcete Taluka Chess Association at Manohar Parrikar Indoor Stadium in Margao, Goa. Photo: Yeshwant Naik

Nitish wins two in-a-row

IM Nitish Belurkar started and ended the month of April in the exact same way - by winning tournaments. He won 1st Mayor's Trophy Indoor GM tournament on 8th April. On 30th May, he won this rapid rating event at his home state. Nitish headed into the final round as a sole leader 7.5/8. He was a half point ahead of the field and had better tie-breaks. He drew against IM Sammed Shete in the final round. FM Ritviz Parab and Arnav Kherdekar lost to Ethan Vaz and IM Ameya Audi respectively. Nitish, Ameya and Ethan all finished with the same score 8/9. They were placed first, second and third accordng to tie-breaks.

Top 3 (L to R): 2nd IM Ameya Audi, 1st IM Nitish Belurkar and 3rd Ethan Vaz 8/9 | Photo: Yeshwant Naik

Champion - IM Nitish Belurkar 8/9 | Photo: Himank Ghosh

Runner-up - IM Ameya Audi 8/9 | Photo: Himank Ghosh

Second Runner-up - Ethan Vaz 8/9 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

IM Nitish Belurkar scored an unbeaten 8/9 to win the tournament

A total of 273 players including 4 IMs participated from various states across the country and one from Hungary. The two-day nine-round Swiss league Rapid Rating tournament was organized by Unity Club in association with Salcete Taluka Chess Association at Manohar Parrikar Indoor Stadium Navelim, Salcete in Margao, Goa on 29th and 30th April 2023. The time control for the event was 25 minutes + 5 seconds increment from move no.1.

Final standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	IM	Nitish, Belurkar				IND	2321	Goa_Tiswadi	8	54,5	60	52,25
2	4	IM	Audi, Ameya				IND	2260	Goa_Salcete	8	51	53,5	47,00
3	8	AIM	Vaz, Ethan	U13			IND	1989	Goa_Salcete	8	50,5	53	45,50
4	6	CM	Niraj, Saripalli				IND	2032	Goa_Salcete	7,5	52	56	45,25
5	2	IM	Sammed Jaykumar, Shete				IND	2321	Maharastra	7,5	51,5	55,5	44,50
6	7	FM	Sauravh, Khherdekar				IND	2015	Maharastra	7,5	51,5	54,5	43,25
7	20		Vivaan, Sunil Ballikar	U15			IND	1421	Goa_Salcete	7,5	50,5	52,5	41,75
8	9		Lad, Mandar Pradip				IND	1978	Goa_Bardez	7	54,5	56,5	40,50
9	13		Sairaj, Dilip Vernekar	U15			IND	1643	Goa_Salcete	7	53	57,5	42,00
10	15		Paarth, P Salvi				IND	1573	Goa_Bardez	7	51,5	53,5	38,50
11	3	FM	Ritviz, Parab				IND	2267	Goa_Salcete	7	51	55	40,00
12	10	IM	Ramnathan, Balasubramaniam	S50			IND	1850	Tamilnadu	7	50	54	40,25
13	12		Kherdekar, Arnav				IND	1717	Maharastra	7	50	53	37,00
14	24		Shrihari, Venkatesh Deshpande	U15			IND	1396	Karnatak	7	48,5	52	38,00
15	11		Bezstrakhov, Dmitry				FID	1818	FID	7	45	50	38,50
16	14		Nadar, Thangraj				IND	1636	Maharastra	7	44	47	34,50
17	23		Asmita, Avijit Ray	F15	w		IND	1399	Goa_Mormugoa	6,5	52,5	56	37,75
18	26		Gaude, Sachin				IND	1387	Goa_Ponda	6,5	50,5	54,5	36,50
19	19		Somaiya, Shreyansh	U15			IND	1469	Maharastra	6,5	49,5	53,5	34,75
20	29		Yash, Manoj Upadhye				IND	1366	Goa_Ponda	6,5	47	51,5	34,50
21	27		Chaitanya, V Gaonkar	U13			IND	1376	Goa_Bicholim	6,5	47	51	34,00
22	51		Ved, Narvekar				IND	1189	Goa_Bardez	6,5	47	50,5	33,50
23	25		Netra, P Savaikar	F15	w		IND	1389	Goa_Ponda	6,5	47	50	32,00
24	37		Sejpal, Kavyan	U13			IND	1273	Maharastra	6,5	46,5	50	32,25
25	21		Anish, Naik				IND	1416	Goa_Ponda	6,5	46	50	33,50