No upsets in first round

Chennai, July 24 (UNI) The first Saranya FIDE rated open chess tournament had no upsets in the inaugural round on the first 15 tables, here today.

The tournament organised by the Saranya Chess Centre, had 101 entries, out of which, 44 were FIDE-rated players. Though there was no International Master in the fray, two experienced Indian Bank FIDE Masters V Hariharan and K V Shantharam, along with another FM Rajesh of Andhra Pradesh, would form part of additional force to a maximum extent.

Besides Tamil Nadu, players from Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Pondicherry are also taking part. For the first time, a tournament of FIDE rating standard was inaugurated by S. Saranya, a LKG student, amid thunderous ovation by the onlookers.

Saranya, the only daughter of National Arbiter N N Sivagnanam, would not have forgotton when her father having a rare OH Negative (Bombay Group) came out from the jaws of death two years ago in the city and planned this tournament.

The IM-norm holder and top seed C Praveen Kumar ( VIT, Vellore) with black pieces, hoodwinked S Badri Narayan in a middle game skirmish that arose out of a closed Benoni defence. Badri unwittingly grabbed a pawn just to fail in a concealed trap and thereby forced to give his queen on his 33rd move and later the game after four more moves.

Tamil Nadu's M Shyam Sundar gave no room for complaint in the Tarasch variation of the French defence deployed by his opponent M Balasubramaniam. Bala unable to meet the onslaught gave up one of the rooks, without any compensation.

Other top notchers in the field were former TN State Champion Ram S Krishnan, the Indian Bank trio, V Hariharan, K V Shantharam and K Gopalakrishnan, consistent duo Vinoth Kumar and P Phoobalan, were also in the one point bracket at the conclusion of the first round tournament.

The ten-round Swiss tournament carries a prize money of Rs 50,000and the winner gets Rs 10,000. Besides the first 16 players getting cash awards, a provision has also been made to the tune of Rs 7,000 for the best eight performers, among the unrated lot of 57 players.

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