Easy for Xiong; Monisha stuns Tokhirjonova

Jeffery Xiong, seeded second, scored a comfortable win against Erigaisi Arjun in the opening round of the World junior chess championship here on Monday.

India’s G.K. Monisha surprised fourth seed Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova of Uzbekistan in the girls’ event.

Important results (first round; Indians unless specified): Vladislav Artemiev (Rus) bt Dylan Viennot (Fra); Erigaisi Arjun lost to Jeffery Xiong (USA); Dennis Wagner (Ger) bt Karthik Venkataraman; Arjun Kalyan lost to Rasmus Svaner (Ger); Aravindh Chithambaram bt N. Krishna Teja; Ankit Gajwa drew with Cristobal Henriquez Villagra (Chi); Xu Yinglun (Chn) bt Rahul Srivatshav; Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad lost to S.L. Narayanan; Karthikeyan Murali bt Velimir Ivic (Srb); S. Yogit lost to Shardul Gagare; Shahin Lorparizangeneh (Ira) lost to Utkal Ranjan Sahoo; Parab Ritviz drew with Noel Studer (Swi); Tran Tuan Minh (Vie) bt Sammed Shete; Pier Luigi Basso (Ita) drew with M. Chakravarthi Reddy; Shailesh Dravid drew with Grzegorz Nasuta (Pol);Srijit Paul lost to Masoud Mosadeghpour (Ira).

Girls: Alina Bivol bt Srija Seshadri; M. Mahalakshmi drew with Pratyusha Bodda; Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova (Uzb) lost to G.K. Monisha; G. Lasya drew with Paula Rodriguez Rueda (Col); Oliwia Kiolbasa (Pol) bt Saloni Sapale; R. Vaishali bt Caterina Leonardi (Slo); K. Priyanka bt Teodora Injac (Srb); Gu Tianlu (Chn) bt P. Bala Kannamma; Amy Hoare (Eng) drew with Priyanka Nutakki; Ashritha Eswaran (USA) bt Sakshi Chitlange; Bayarsaikhan Yanjinlkham (Mgl) lost to Michelle Catherina; Parnali Dharia drew with Ellen Kakulidis (Den); Vantika Agrawal lost to Uurtsaikh Uuriintuya (Mgl).