An unheralded 12-year-old Kerala-boy, S.L. Narayanan, hogged the limelight while seven of the top 15 seeds dropped half a point to their lower rated rivals on the opening day of the Parsvnath Commonwealth chess championship here on Monday.
On a day when Andhra-girl G. Lasya, rated 1839, made a mockery of a rating difference of 590 points to stun Singapore's International Master Enrique Paciencia, second seed and India's best bet, Parimarjan Negi, topped the list of GMs who were held to draws.
Six others including third seed Anton Kovalyov (Argentina), fifth seed Eltaj Safarli (Azerbaijan), seventh seed Pablo Lafuente (Argentina), 12th seed Abhijit Kunte, 13th seed Saidali Iuldachev (Uzbekistan) and 14th seeded National champion B. Adhiban drew their second round games.
Till this day, Narayanan was best remembered for showing great sportsman spirit in the opening round of the Parsvnath International Open in New Delhi in January by agreeing to play with the top seed and eventual champion, Iran's Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, instead of accepting the point by virtue of a walkover.
On Monday, Narayanan showed the stuff he is made of by coming up with a stunning rook-sacrifice against Negi on the 38th move to force a draw by perpetual checks. Narayanan, rated at a modest 1965 to Negi's 2636, went on to surprise Woman International Master Kiran Manisha Mohanty in the second round.
While top seed Alexey Dreev of Russia won the two rounds as expected, Kovalyov, rated 2615, faced stiff resistance from Nagpur-lad Gurpreet Singh Maras (2227) and settled for a draw in 59 moves.
Former National ‘A' player Manipur's Vikramjit Singh (2218) proved equal to Safarli (2610) while Singapore's Tan Weiliang (2186) held Iuldachev (2511).
Kunte (2533) drew with Delhi's Hemant Sharma (2191) while another Delhi youngster Prince Bajaj (2180) took half a point off Adhiban (2510) following a three-fold repetition of moves.
The results (Indians unless stated): Second round: Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (1) lost to Alexey Dreev (Rus, 2); Gurpreet Singh Maras (1.5) drew with Anton Kovalyov (Arg, 1.5); Dmitry Kokarev (Rus, 2) bt Yusup Atabayev (Tkm, 1); Vikramjit Singh (1.5) drew with Eltaj Safarli (Aze,); Dmitry Bocharov (Rus, 2) bt Anurag Mhamal (1); Vinod Bhagwat (1.5) drew with Pablo Lafuente (Arg, 1.5); Pavel Maletin (Rus, 2) bt D. Yashas (1); Sohan Phadke (1) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (2); Martyn Kravtsiv (Ukr, 2) bt Rishipal Singh (1); Antonio Viani D'cunha (1) lost to Rustam Khusnutdinov (Kaz, 2); Abhijit Kunte (1.5) drew with Hemant Sharma (1.5); Tan Weiliang (Sin, 1.5) drew with Saidali Iuldachev (Uzb, 1.5); B. Adhiban (1.5) drew with Prince Bajaj (Del); Rajib Dhar (1) lost to Sriram Jha (2); Enamul Hossain (Ban, 2) bt M. G. Magan (1).
First round: Dreev bt Roshan Rangarajan; S.L. Narayanan drew with Parimarjan Negi; Kovalyov drew with M. Sidharth; Amitabh Chourasia lost to Kokaraev; Safarli bt Sonakshi Rathore; A.P. Joshua lost to Bocharov; Lafuente bt Hendrik Marais Coenraad (RSA); Werner Kannemeyer (RSA) lost to Maletin; Abhijeet bt Anjali Palande; K.G. Chaithanyaa lost to Martyn Kravtsiv (Ukr).
