TOP seeds in both open and girls sections had smooth sailing on opening day of the 39th National Under-7 Open & Girls Chess Championships that got underway at GH Raisoni Institute of Engineering & Technology (GHRIET), Shraddha Park, MIDC, on Tuesday morning. The event is being organised by Maharashtra Chess Association (MCA) and Chess Association Nagpur (CAN) in association with GH Raisoni Sports and Cultural Foundation under the aegis of the All India Chess Federation (AICF), and is supported by Cosmos Co-Operative Bank Ltd. There are 267 participants in the Open Group while 148 are taking part in the Girls Group. Telangana’s Lavik Ram Vislavath and Udhriti Bhattacharya from West Bengal, who are the top seeds, won both their matches to lead a pack of players with two points in their kitty. Lavik got the better of Maharashtra’s Aveer Niral Shah on top board in open section second round while Udhriti beat Assam’s Ishanvi Rajbongshi for her second point. There will be two rounds daily till July 3. Final Round shall be played on July 4 and will be followed by prize distribution function. Total Prize money at stake is Rs 5,00,000 with the winner in each group getting Rs 50,000 each. At the outset, the event was officially inaugurated by GM Divya Deshmukh by playing a move on the chess board. GM Divya also spoke about her experience while playing in initial days of chess playing.

 

Dr Parineeta Fuke, Social Worker and former Corporator; Dr Vivek Kapur, Vice-Chancellor, GH Raisoni Skill Tech University; AK Verma, Chief Administrative Officer of All India Chess Federation; Girish Vyas, President, Chess Association Nagpur; IA Debashish Barua, Chief Arbiter; Niranjan Godbole, Secretary MCA and Tournament Director, and Bhushan Shriwas, Organising Secretary of the event were prominently present on the dais. SS Soman, Co-ordinator of the event conducted the programme. The post inauguration function witnessed the craze for Divya amongst the parents and players. Divya reciprocated by allowing numerous photos with the players and parents which charged the playing atmosphere in the hall. The event shall be conducted from till July 4. Barua will be assisted by Dy Chief Arbiter IA P Palaniappan, IA Pravin Thakre, FA Amit Tembhurne, FA Bharati Dhote, FA Gayatri Panbude, FA Sagar Sakhare, SNA Shital Panbude, SNA Swati Kumbhalkar, SNA Ojas Raut, SNA Ninad Warudkar, SNA Prayas Ambade, SNA Akash Rewatkar, SNA Shishir Indurkar and Prathamesh Machave. RESULTS (Rd 2, top five boards) Open: Lavik Ram (2) bt Aveer Niral Shah (1), Ayaansh Fuller (1) lost to Sathwik B Bhat (2), Badana Duvanth Ram (1) lost to Shivansh Basu (2, Aksh Shrivastava (2) bt Daksh Jaykumar Kathrani (1), Bejugam Abhijeet Gupta (1) lost to Rudra Pratap (2). Girls: Udhriti Bhattacharya (2) bt Ishanvi Rajbongshi (1), Jain Tanishqa (1) lost to Aarini Lahoty (2), Aaditri Majumdar (2) bt Jaahnavi Manohar (1), Mugdha Abhishek Kelkar (1) lost to Shaik Shazwa (2), Navya R (2) bt Niyara Reddy Gangula (1).