KOCAELI, Sept 14: Asian junior champion N Srinath suffered a shock defeat at the hands of unheralded Murad Nuri of Azerbaijan in the first round of the World Junior Chess Championship that got underway here.
Srinath had to pay the price after falling into a passive position and he could not solve his problems effectively on an otherwise good day for the Indians in the first round of the premier event for the under-20 aged players in the world.
Grand Master and highest rated Indian in the fray, Vidit Gujarathi started his campaign with a regulation victory over Roberto Castro Carneiro Vitor of Brazil.
Another Indian Grand Master S P Sethuraman also got off to a good start at the expense of Melih Yurtseven of Turkey while GM Sahaj Grover got a full point as his opponent withdrew from the event at the last minute.
But, Grand Master-in-waiting Debashish Das had to sweat hard before he could knock down Pedro Neves of Portugal while S L Narayanan and Sameer Kathmale cruised past Gun Sumer and Eren Topac Ahmet of Turkey respectively. On the flip side, Rakesh Kulkarni was on the receiving end against defending champion and local star Alexander Ipatov.
In the girls’ championship being held simultaneously, India’s best bet Padmini Rout got off to a flier against Marvorii Nasriddinzoda of Tajikistan. Playing white, Padmini remained in control throughout the game and had little troubles in securing her first full point.
National junior girls’ champion Rucha Pujari and former Asian junior girls’ champion Ivana Maria Furtado defeated Turkish girls Nur Guney Gamze and Yaren Aslan Cagla while G K Monisha and J Saranya also accounted for local hopefuls Melisa Birgelir and Berfin Sen Beril respectively.
The biggest upset of the day was recorded in the open section wherein Chu Wei Chao of China outplayed GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of Armenia. At the top of the tables, Yu Yangyi of China defeated Gabriel Gaehwiller of Switzerland. (PTI)
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