SANGLI, May 11: IMs P Konguvel, Ravi Hegde and Sudhakar Babu curved out facile wins on the opening day of the 30th SK Vaidya Memorial Fide-rating chess tournament today.

Playing with black pieces, Konguvel (Oil and Natural Gas Commission) defeated Maharashtra's Vinayak Hiremath and Babu (Indian Bank) beat Guladig Naik, while Hegde (Union Bank of India) scored win over Shailesh Rawal.

In the strongest ever edition featuring 207 participants, the tournament would see six International Masters, seven women including two International Women Masters, battle their minds over the boards.

Also featuring are national veteran's champion Nasir Ali aged 65 and the youngest participant Shainesh Aher aged five.

The five blind players are also in the contention ready with their special chess boards to match their wits against the strongest.

National runners-up IM P Konguvel, who arrived here straight from Bhilai Nationals, is given the top billing having rating of 2425, while his ONGC colleague im Vargese Koshy, the current National `B' champion is participating for the first time.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.