International Master K. Rathnakaran caused a major upset, defeating seventh seed Grandmaster Zhong Zhang of Singapore in the first round of Asian Continental chess championship Al Ain, United Arab Emirates.
Rathnakaran turned the tables on the former Chinese after staring at a defeat for the major part of the game.
This victory might be the launch pad for what would be Rathnakaran’s final Grandmaster norm.
Grandmaster Koneru Humpy suffered a reversal in the opener as she went down to Asyl Abdyjapar of Kyrgyzstan in a game that the world number three woman player could have saved.
The Capablanca variation in the Nimzo Indian defense game gave Humpy equal chances in the middle game but she missed the thread and landed in a lost endgame after giving away a couple of pawns.
Humpy and Harika are the two woman players taking part in the open section instead of women’s category. Harika ended up drawing her first round game with Basher Iyti of Syria.
Meanwhile, highest rated Indian, Vidit Gujrathi put it across Bangladeshi Grandmaster Enamul Hossain to open his account in style. Krishnan Sasikiran was also quite up to the task in crushing Petr Kostenko of Kazakhstan.
Recently crowned Commonwealth champion Abhijeet Gupta, however, could not strike form in the premier Asian event as he had to split the point against talented Iranian youngster Parham Maghsoodloo.
The other fancied Indians had it easy as Surya Shekhar Ganguly, S.P. Sethuraman and M.R. Lalith Babu also cruised home in the first round.
The event is being held as part of the next world championship cycle and there are 83 participants in the fray for five seats up for grabs.
There is a total of $87000 prize money at stake in both open and women’s section. The event will also have blitz and rapid championship to determine the best Asian player in faster version of the game.
In the women’s championship, which is being held simultaneously, International Master and former champion Tania Sachdev suffered a setback at the hands of unheralded Ranaa Hakimifard of Iran.
Tania’s recent bad run continued in the first round here too as she was not able to handle a king side attack arising out of an Italian opening.
Second seeded Indian Padmini Rout, however, was in her elements as she won with black pieces against Nguyen Thi Thanh An of Vietnam.
Minoo Asgarizadeh was no match for Eesha Karavade, while S Vijayalakshmi, Soumya Swaminathan and Bhakti Kulkarni also took off with a victory.
The women’s championship is also part of next women’s world championship cycle. However, only the winner from here gets qualified to the next stage.
Important and Indian results open (Indians unless specified):
Haridas Pascua (Phi) drew with Le Quang Liem (Vie); Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (Vie) drew with Wang Yiye (Chn); Enamul Hossain (Ban) lost to Vidit Santosh Gujrathi; Krishnan Sasikiran beat Petr Kostenko (Kaz); P Karthikeyan lost to S P Sethuraman; Surya Shekhar Ganguly beat Sharavdorj Dashzegve (Mgl); K Rathnakaran beat Zhong Zhang (Sin); Abhijeet Gupta drew with Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri); S Nitin lost to A R Salem Saleh (Uae); Deep Sengupta drew with Zhanat Saiyn (Kaz); Asyl Abdyjapar (Kgz) beat Koneru Humpy; Sandipan Chanda beat Semetey Tologontegin (Kgz); Li Di (Chn) lost to M R Lalith Babu; Salih Akar Ali Salih (Irq) drew with G N Gopal; D Harika drew with Basher Iyti (Syr); V Vishnu Prasannabeat Abdulwahhab Ahmed Abdulsattar (Irq); Abhijit Kunte beat Assad Mamyrbay (Kaz); Debashis Das drew with Keshav Shrestha (Nep); M R Venkatesh drew with Galappaththi Chinthaka Anurud (Sri); Nassar Marwan (Lib) lost to S L Narayanan.
Women: Tan Zhongyi (Chn) beat Le Kieu Thien Kim (Vie); Nguyen Thi Thanh An (Vie) lost to Padmini Rout; Shen Yang (Chn) beat Ghazal Hakimifard (Iri); Otgonjargal Sengeravdan (Mgl) beat Lei Tingjie (Chn); Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (Iri) beat B Pratyusha; Eesha Karavade beat Minoo Asgarizadeh (Iri); Ranaa Hakimifard (Iri) beat Tania Sachdev; Alshaeby Boshra (Jor) lost to S Vijayalakshmi; Nibal Algildah (Syr) lost to Soumya Swaminathan; Alymbay Kyzy Aizhan (Kgz) lost to Mary Ann Gomes; Mona Al-Harmoudi (Uae) lost to Bhakti Kulkarni; Nisha Mohota beat Aseel Odeh (Jor).
