GM Dibyendu Barua was humbled by the 13-year-old Aravindh Chithambaram in the opening round of the Tata National premier chess tournament at the Khudiram indoor hall here on Monday.
In another major upset, GM Deep Sengupta lost to FM Anurag Mhamal.
Barua, who won the title here in 2001, seemed to have underestimated Aravindh, the National under-11, 13 and 19 champion. An eighth standard student of Dolphin Matriculation High School, the Madurai lad made full use of a blunder by the veteran on the 17th move that allowed for a sharp attack in a French Winawer. The game was over in 27 moves.
“He is so good he did not allow me to recover from that mistake,” said Barua.
The 50th edition of the tournament also witnessed a few more shocks in the opening round. Second seed GM S.P. Sethuraman lost on time to WGM Mary Ann Gomes in a complicated position arising out of a Sicilian Najdorf. Later, Sethuraman lodged a protest against the decision to award the game to his opponent.
Adhiban held
Top seed B. Adhiban was held by Swayams Mishra after the latter held the upper hand for most part of the game.
GMs Lalith Babu, Deepan Chakkravarthy, Abhijit Kunte, S. Arun Prasad and Praveen Thipsay were also held by lesser-ranked opponents. Altogether 15 GMs and 11 IMs are in the fray in this 13-round Swiss league which will end on October 14. Incidentally, GM R.R. Laxman was the latest to cry off from the meet.
West Bengal State sports minister Madan Mitra, who declared open the tournament, promised a sum of Rs. five lakh for the event. Olympian Gurbux Singh and tennis legend Akhtar Ali were also present at the inauguration.
The results (first round): Swayams Mishra (0.5) drew with B. Adhiban (0.5); S.P. Sethuraman (0) lost to Mary Ann Gomes (1); Suvrajit Saha (0) lost to G.N. Gopal (1); M.R. Lalith Babu (0.5) drew with Sagar Shah (0.5); Anurag Mhamal (1) bt Deep Sengupta (0); J. Deepan Chakkravarthy (0.5) drew with G. Akash (0.5).
Atanu Lahiri (0.5) drew with Abhijit Kunte (0.5); Sahaj Grover (1) bt C. Praveen Kumar (0); S.L. Narayanan (0.5) drew with M.R. Venkatesh (0.5); S. Arun Prasad (0.5) drew with B.T. Muralikrishnan (0.5); Bitan Banerjee (0.5) drew with Vidit Santosh Gujarathi (0.5); Neelotpal Das (1) bt C.R.G. Krishna (0); Shashikant Kutwal (0) lost to Swapnil S. Dhopade (1); Swayangsu Satyapragyan (1) bt Ram S. Krishnan (0).
Murali Karthikeyan (0) lost to Debashis Das (1); S. Kidambi (1) bt S. Ravi Teja (0); Aravindh Chithambaram (1) bt Dibyendu Barua (0); Saptarshi Roy (0.5) drew with Arindam Mukherjee (0.5); Diptayan Ghosh (0) lost to M.L. Abhilash Reddy (1); Soham Phadke (0.5) drew with Praveen Thipsay (0.5); K. Praneeth Surya (0) lost to P. Karthikeyan (1); V.A.V. Rajesh (1) bt Pratik Patil (0).
