Good start for seeded players at Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess tournament

The seeded players got off to a winning start at the first Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess tournament. The event is being held for players rated above Elo 2000 in Pune on Tuesday.

Top seed GM Farrukh Amonatov of Tajikistan sailed smoothly to launch his campaign on a rousing note. Amonatov, fresh from his triumph at the KIIT GM Chess Open a couple of days back, was his combinative self with the white pieces in a Sicilian game against Anish Gandhi.

Sacrificing his bishop for a couple of pawns, Amonatov caught Gandhi’s King in the center without the shelter of the castle. Gandhi’s pieces were pushed back and bogged down in passive defence. Gandhi was forced to give up his queen for a rook and ended up on the losing side after 35 moves.

In the Queen’s Gambit Declined Game, MR Lalith Babu, the highest rated Indian in the fray, was offered stiff resistance by Joshua AP. Lalith Babu, however, won the pawn and steered the game to an end where each had a rook and minor pieces each. The game was in progress at the time of going to the press.

Fourth seed Alexei Federov kept his king at center without castling against Tejaswani Sagar. Inaccurate play by Tejaswani had Federov gobbling up a couple of pawns to pocket the game after 43 moves.

Fifth seed Deep Sengupta and Atul Dahale were involved in a Pirc defense game. Deep, enjoying a positional edge, gained a pawn and simplified the position by exchanging pieces to reach the queen and pawns at each end. On the 38th turn, Dahale resigned when Deep threatened to promote one of his pawns into a queen.

Boris Svachenko easily brushed past Praveen Kumar after a 42 move from Neo-Grunfeld Defence.

Maharashtra Sports Minister Sunil Kedar (R) making a move to mark the inauguration while Devendra Fadnavis and other guests look on. (Pic credit: AICF)

Maharashtra Sports Minister Sunil Kedar and Devendra Fadnavis inaugurated the Pune Chess tournament

The first ever GM event was inaugurated by former Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and State Sports Minister Sunil Kedar.

Fadnavis and Kedar also felicitated GM Abhijit Kunte for being conferred with the Dhyan Chand Award.

MCA President Parinay Fuke, Working President Siddharth Mayur, Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte, Senior VP, Aniruddha Deshpande, VP, Girish Chitale, VP and Secretary, AICF Bharat Singh Chauhan were the guests of honor.

Important Chess Results (Round 1)

GM Farrukh Amonatov (1) bt Anish Gandhi (0)

WIM Tejaswini Sagar (0) lost to GM Alexei Federov (1)

GM Deep Sengupta (1) bt Atul Dahale (0)

Aanjaneya Phatak (0) lost to GM V Karthik (1)

GM Mihail Nikitenko (1) bt C M Manisha Kadam (0).