Chess: Gujrathi and Abhijeet post wins

Indian Grandmasters Abhijeet Gupta and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi scored easy victories in the first round of the 31st Cappelle La Grand International chess tournament here on Sunday.

It turned out to be an easy day for Gupta who played a fine game giving little chance to Antoine Favarel of France.

Grandmaster G.N. Gopal suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Demre Kerigan of Turkey.

Important results: First round: Tomas Laurusas (Ltu) drew with Li Chao (Chn); Alexander Areshchenko (Ukr) bt Olav Sepp (Est); Pavel Martynov (Rus) lost to Igor Kovalenko (Lat); Vladimir Baklan (Ukr) drew with Nikolay Milchev (Bul); Igor Yagupov (Rus) lost to Tigran Gharamian (Arm); Konstantin Landa (Rus) bt Yago De Moura Santiago (Bra) ; Abhijeet Gupta bt Antoine Favarel (Fra); Ramon Mateo (Dom) lost to Vidit Santosh Gujrathi; G.N. Gopal lost to Demre Kerigan (Tur); Sandipan Chanda bt Ismael Karim (Mar); Nikolai Shalnev (Ger) lost to Sahaj Grover; S. Arun Prasad bt Judith Fuchs (Ger); V. Vishnu Prasanna bt Ellinor Frisk (Fra); Alain Fayard (Fra) lost to M.R. Venkatesh; Gulnara Salakhova (Rus) lost to S. Kidambi.