Abu Dhabi Masters: Ravi Teja holds Wang Hao

On what turned out to be a marathon game, S. Ravi Teja was in his elements in finding the right defence first and then unleashing some serious threatening moves to secure a draw against Wang Hao of China in his first outing in the Abu Dhabi Masters.

S. Ravi Teja and Wang Hao agreed for a draw after 79 moves.

International Master S. Ravi Teja on Monday got off to an impressive start, drawing with second seed Wang Hao of China in the first round of Abu Dhabi Masters here.

On what turned out to be a marathon game, Teja was in his elements in finding the right defence first and then unleashing some serious threatening moves to make a mark in his first outing in one of the strongest Asian open.

It was an irregular queen pawn game wherein the Chinese played black. Ravi Teja gave little away in the opening, fought on well to reach a balanced endgame and when the opportunity presented got a passed pawn on the queen side. Wang Hao had to bail out through a knight sacrifice but he had picked out all white pawns. The draw was agreed after 79 moves.

Top rated Indian B. Adhiban also got off to a fine start showcasing fine calculating abilities to down Russian Grandmaster Alexander Raetsky. This one too was out of routine opening theory soon after the game began and Adhiban was clearly the superior player in the ensuing complications.

The two recently crowned Commonwealth champions — Abhijeet Gupta and Tania Sachdev — did not get desired results in the first round.While Gupta was held to a draw by compatriot R. R. Laxman, Tania proved no match for top seed Dmitry Andreikin of Russia and lost in a mere 22 moves.

The opening round saw some other notable results coming on various boards for Indians.

Among them, young talents P. Iniyan and Mehar Chenna Reddy were impressive in holding high ranked Grandmasters Zaven Andriasian of Armenia and Eduardo Iturrizaga of Venezuela. M. Kunal and R. A. Harikrishnan also came up with an inspired performance in the opener and played out draws with Ahmed Adly of Egypt and Serzei Azarov of Belarus.

On the flip side, Grandmaster G. N. Gopal was held to a draw by lower ranked Women International Master Maria Severina of Russia. Eight rounds still remain in the over USD 35,000 prize money tournament that is a part of the annual Abu Dhabi Chess Festival. There are a total of 130 players in the fray including 40 Grandmasters.

Important and Indian Results: Round 1 (Indians unless stated): Dmitry Andreikin (Rus) beat Tania Sachdev; S. Ravi Teja drew with Wang Hao (Chn); B. Adhiban beat Alexander Raetsky (Rus); Amin Bassem (Egy) beat Abhishek Kelkar; R. R. Laxman drew with Abhijeet Gupta; Eduardo Iturrizaga (Ven) drew with Mehar Chinna Reddy; P. Iniyan drew with Zaven Andriasian (Arm); Harshit Raja drew with Grigoriy Oparin (Rus); A. R. Salem Saleh (UAE) beat Siva Mahadevan; V. A. V. Rajesh lost to Tamas Banusz (Hun); Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (Arm) beat Antonio Viani D’cunha; Rakesh Kulkarni lost to Alexander Zubov (Ukr); M. Kunal drew with Ahmed Adly (Egy); R. A. Harikrishnan drew with Sergei Azarov (Blr); M. R. Lalith Babu beat V Pranavananda; Maria Severina (Rus) drew with G. N. Gopal; Vaibhav Suri beat Aradhya Garg; V. Vishnu Prasanna beat Rayes Abdul Kader; Swapnil Dhopade beat R Ashwath; Aryan Chopra beat Pratik Patil; Mona Khaled (Egy) lost to N. Srinath; Tarini Goyal lost to Himal Gusain; M. S. Thejkumar beat Aditya Mittal.