GM K Sasikiran wins first-round game in 62nd National Chess Championship

Tijil Singh drew against six-time champion GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly in the 62nd National Chess Championship first round. Other highlights included GM K Sasikiran’s win, S Rohith Krishna’s adventurous play, and Dronacharya Koneru Ashok’s return after 22 years

Hyderabad: Tijil Singh of Telangana failed to seize an advantageous position and settled for a creditable draw against six-time consecutive national champion GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly in the 62nd National Chess Championship at Vignan University in Guntur on Monday.

Even though there were many exciting games, there were no major upsets except Tijil surprising the seasoned campaigner Ganguly with his grit. However, the Telangana player blundered a queen exchange, which eventually cost him the game.

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One of India’s finest-ever players, GM K Sasikiran of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, playing his first National in nearly 12 years, outwitted Majhi Fair in a first-round game, steadily outclassing his opponent in a smart positional effort.

India’s latest GM, S Rohith Krishna (TN, 2503), played adventurously against Vineel Radha Karthik Chukka (AP, 1889). He captured a pawn on e5 to bring it to the centre of the board. Later, it turned out that in the queen and knight endgame, moving his king strategically helped him to win the game.

In other first-round games, N Arun Prakash (Tamil Nadu), Rupesh B Ramachandra (Bihar), Advik Reddy Moate (Telangana), and Swapnil Priyadarshi (Odisha) held GM Prraneeth Vuppala (Telangana), GM Sayantan Das (RSPB), GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (RSPB), and GM Sriram Jha (LIC) to a draw respectively.

The championship also marked the return of Dronacharya Koneru Ashok, father of GM Humpy Koneru, who was playing his first rating tournament in over 22 years.

The biggest eyebrow-raiser came on Board 13, where GM Prraneeth Vuppala (Telangana) was held to a draw by N Arul Prakash (TN). Prraneeth, one of India’s fastest-rising stars, found no breakthrough against his resilient opponent.

In another game, GM Sayantan Das (RSPB) was forced to split the points with Rupesh B Ramachandra (Bihar), while IM Harsh Suresh (TN) could not crack Amartya Saumitra Gupta (Delhi).

GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (RSPB) also stumbled to half-a-point against Advik Reddy Moate (Telangana), and IM Panda Sambit (Odisha) saw his opening advantage neutralised by Sri Akhil Prasad (Andhra Pradesh).

Earlier, Chairman of Vignan Group of Institutions, Dr Rathaiah, formally inaugurated the championship by playing a friendly game with GM K Sasikiran.

Important results, 1st round: Iniyan Pa bt Rishit Sharma; Tijil Singh lost to Surya Sekhar Ganguly; S P Sethuraman bt Sanskruti Wankhede; Majhi Fakir lost to K Sasikiran; N R Vignesh bt Srikara Darbha; Konaparthi Seetasagar lost to Aronyak Ghosh; Abhijeet Gupta bt Sunetra Dey; C Vinyl Radha Karthik lost to S Rohith Krishna; M R Lalit Babu bt Gagan Sahu; Manav Kumar lost to Deep Sengupta.