Abhijit Bhurke claims chess title

MUMBAI, December 24: Sixteen year-old Abhijit Bhurke of Podar College won the Senior Division Chess Tournament organised by the Bombay Chess Association at the Zandu Pharmaceuticals Works Canteen. In the final round, played late last evening, Bhurke outsmarted M Sudarshan of Mazagaon Dock to take his total points to 8. Bhurke defended with ease and won the game in 45 moves.

Ganesh Bhilare took the second spot with seven points. In the last round he beat Saumil Desai. Subhash Honmurgi (Voltas) and Dr Deepak Tandel ended with seven points each but were ranked third and fourth on their progressive scores. Other prize winners were Sudarshan, Durai R and Kiran Pitale with 6.5 points each.

The top 32 players were promoted for the forthcoming Bombay Division Selection tournament. Among them are Cyrus Irani, Anil Arora, Chandrakant Reddy, Munish Kapoor and Giridhar Adhikari.