Dubai: Grandmaster Koneru Humpy beat M. Sadatnajafi of Iran in the first round to open her account in style at the ninth Dubai International Open chess championship here on Sunday.

Playing white, Humpyhad little trouble in taming Sadatnajafi, who was gradually outplayed in the middle game arising out of a queen pawn opening.

It turned out to be a good day for other fancied Indians as most of the seeds scored easy victories.

GM R.B. Ramesh played a chanceless game to outwit Ali Obay of Sudan and GM Tejas Bakre found German Rolf Sander's challenge mediocre.

Meanwhile, top seed Jaan Ehlvest had a smooth sailing over Indian youngster N. Srinath.

Early problems

Playing the black side of an irregular opening, Srinath had problems early in the game and could not recover as Ehlvest consistently pressurised black's centre to gain a decisive passed pawn.

GM-norm hopefuls D. Harika and G.N. Gopal scored hard-fought wins over Iran's A. Ghobadibigvand and Mehdi Mahdavirad respectively.

Amongst the IM norm contenders, S.P. Sethuraman and M.R. Lalith Babu scored facile wins over little-known opponents, while Aditya Udeshi was outplayed by Iranian GM Gahem Maghami Ehsan in a long-drawn game.

Also going down to a Grandmaster opposition was Sahaj Grover, who lost his way from a promising position against Megaranto Susanto of Indonesia.

It was a moment to cherish for R. Prasanna Rao as he was pitted against the legendry Maia Chiburdanidze of Georgia, a former World women's champion. The Indian youngster went haywire early in this game and lost in just under an hour.

Indian results (first round): Jaan Ehlvest (U.S.) bt Narayanan Srinath; Aditya Udeshi lost to Ghaem Maghami Ehsan (Iri); Kruttina Nadig lost to Tigran Petrosian (Arm); Koneru Humpy bt M Sadatnajafi (Iri); Shatrughan Jha drew with M.A. Sadeghi (Iri); Sahaj Grover lost to Megaranto Susanto (Ina); Maia Chiburdanidze (Geo) bt R. Prasanna Rao; D. Harika bt Mehdi Mahdavirad (Iri); S. Kidambi drew with Saeed Ishaq (UAE); G.N. Gopal bt A Ghobadibigvand (Iri); Ali Obay (Sud) lost to R.B. Ramesh; Rolf Sander (Ger) lost to Tejas Bakre; P.D.S. Girinath bt AHA Saleh (Brn); S. Meenakshi bt Grishina Alexandra (Rus); Shiven Khosla lost to B. Adhiban; Ghazal Hakimifard (Iri) lost to Eesha Karavade; Saleh Nora Mohd (UAE) lost to Vikramaditya Kamble; S.P. Sethuraman bt Mohamed Eissa (UAE); M.R. Lalith Babu bt Bukhashem Fayeqa (UAE); R. Aarthie bt Amir Ali Taghikhani (Iri). — PTI

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