Top players were off to a smooth start in the Rs. 10.20 lakh Vizag Steel GMs international open chess tournament at the Swarna Bharati indoor stadium here on Thursday, except for 14-year-old Sudhamahari Dinker of Chennai holding experienced IM P.D.S. Girinath to a draw.
World junior champion three years ago and top seed Abhijeet Gupta, playing black, beat Vishnu Surendran.
Another former World junior champion Andriasian Zavne of Armenia and his compatriot Tigran Petrosian and 10 other GMs too scored comfortable wins.
Important results (first round): Vishnu Surendran (India) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (Ind, 1), Petrosian Tigran L (Armenia,1) bt G. Chiranjeevi (Ind), K. Sai Nirupama (Ind) lost to Andriasian Zaven (Arm, 1).
Ulibin Mikhail (Russia, 1) bt M. Chakravarthi Reddy (Ind), S.R. Harikrishna (Ind) lost to Andrev Sumets (Ukraine, 1), Evgeny Gleizerov (Rus, 1) bt N. Krishna Teja (Ind), S. Raju (Ind) lost to Henrik Danielsen (Island,1), S. Arun Prasad (Ind, 1) bt Vaibhav Bhat (Ind), Sahaj Grover (Ind, 1) bt Harsha Bharathakoti (Ind), N. Hema Priya (Ind) lost to M.R. Venkatesh Ind, 1), J. Deepan Chakraborty (Ind, 1) bt R. Bhavani Shankar (Ind), M.R. Lalith Babu (Ind, 1) bt Rajkumar S. SIngha (Ind), Begum Masuda (Bangladesh) lost to S. Kidambi (Ind, 1), Sai Agni Jeevitesh (Ind) lost to Nolte Rolando (Philippines, 1), M.S. Thejkumar (Ind, 1) bt L. Dhanunjaya Rao (Ind).
V. Trinadh (Ind) lost to Vaibhav Suri (Ind), S. Satyapragyan (Ind,1), bt R. Babu Rao (Ind), U. Ashwini (Ind) lost to Murshed Niaz (Bangla, 1), T. Dheeraj Kumar Reddy (Ind) lost to R.R. Laxman (Ind, 1), Hemanth Kumar (Ind) lost to K. Rathnakaran (Ind, 1), P. Karthikeyan (Ind, 1) bt V.S.S. Priya (Ind), Shaik Sydulu (Ind) lost to Himanshu Sharma (Ind, 1), V. Vishnu Prasanna (Ind, 1) bt Prasannakumar Nayak (Ind), P. Srinivas Reddy (Ind) lost to Padmini Rout (Ind, 1), Minhazuddin Ahmed (Bangla, 1) bt A. Visveshwar (Ind), K. Prabhat (Ind) lost to Narayanan Srinath (Ind,1), Swayams Mishra (Ind, 1) bt Shishir Kumar (Ind), T. Pujitha Reddy (Ind) lost to K. Priyadarshan (Ind, 1), Sanjay Kumar Mittal (Ind) lost to T.U. Navin Kanna (Ind, 1), P.D.S. Girinath (Ind, 0.5) drew with Sudhamahari Dinker (Ind, 0.5). — Special Correspondent
