Parimarjan held by lowly rival,easy outing for other seeds

Second seed Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi was held to a surprise draw by much-lower ranked SL Narayanan in a first round match on the opening day of the Parsvnath Commonwealth Chess Championship here on Monday.

Second seed Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi was held to a surprise draw by much-lower ranked SL Narayanan in a first round match on the opening day of the Parsvnath Commonwealth Chess Championship here on Monday.

Playing white side of Sicilian Defence,12-year-old Narayanan maneuvered his rook and queen to his opponents territory in the middle game. A brilliant rook sacrifice in the 38th move ensured him half point nine moves later.

In another major surprise of the first round,G Lasya from Andhra Pradesh beat IM Enrique Paciencia of Singapore,rated almost 600 points higher than her. Apart from Negi,almost all top seeded players in the tournament,which features 20 Grandmasters in the fray,posted easy victories to advance to the second round with full points in their kitty.

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Easy outing for Dreev
While top seed Grandmaster Alexy Dreev of Russia had an easy outing against Roshan Rangarajan,third seed Argentinean Grandmaster Anton Kovalyov made short work of young M Siddarth. Among other Indian players,former world junior champion Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta and former national champion Abhijit Kunte also had an easy day at the office,defeating Anjali Palande and Michelle Catherina respectively.

Local hopes Grandmaster Sriram Jha and International Masters Tania Sachdev and Sahaj Grover started their campaign without much struggle as they beat Abir Sinha,Meredow Shanepes of South Africa and Jitendra Choudhury respectively.

The Rs 8-lakh prize money championship features 311 players from 15 countries.

Results (Rd 1)GM Alexey Dreev (Rus; 1) bt Roshan Rangarajan (0); SL Narayanan (.5) drew with GM Parigmarjan Negi (.5); GM Anton Kovalyov (Arg; 1) bt M Siddarth (0); Amitabh Chourasia (0) lost to Dmitry Kokarev (Rus; 1); GM Eltaj Safarli of (Aze; 1) bt Sonakshi Rathore (0); AP Joshua (0) lost to GM Dmitry Bocharov (Rus; 1); GM Pablo Lafuente of (Arg; 1) bt Hendrik Marais Coenradd of (SA; 0); Werner Kannemeyar (SA; 0) lost to GM Pavel Maletin (Rus; 1); GM Abhijeet Gupta (1) bt Anjali Palande (0); KG Chaithanyaa (0) lost to GM Martyn Kravtsiv (Ukr; 1); GM Rustam Khusnutdinov (Kaz; 1) bt Rustem Nazarov of (Turk; 0); Michelle Catherina (0) lost to GM Abhijit Kunte (1); GM Saidali Iuldachev (Uzb; 1) bt JV Sai Kiran (0); A Sithalatchumi (0) lost to IM B Adhiban (1); GM Sriram Jha (1) beat Abir Sinha (0); Anjana Krishna (0) lost to GM Enamul Hossain (Ban; 1); GM Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb; 1) bt Neetakshya Singh (0); Barath L (0) lost to IM Lalith Babu (1); IM Dronavalli Harika (1) bt Akshay Bharadwaj (0); Dhara Gupta (0) lost to GM Tejas Bakre (1).

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