Aeroflot Open Chess: Adhiban begins with win, Praggnanandhaa held to draw

Indian Grand Masters B. Adhiban and S. P. Sethuraman were among the winners in the opening round games of ‘A’ Group at the Aeroflot Open chess tournament Moscow.

Top seed Vladislav Artemiev (Elo rating 2728), the highly-rated 21-year-old Russian, began his campaign in style with a victory over Velimir Ivic in 51 moves late on Wednesday.

Adhiban (Elo 2654), the sixth seed, defeated Sergey Grigoriants in 35 moves, while the 12th-seeded Sethuraman put it past young compatriot and GM Raunak Sadhwani in 43 moves.

ALSO READ| Prague Chess: Vidit Gujrathi, Harikrishna play out draw

There were victories for other Indian players, including N. R. Visakh, Murali Karthikeyan, Deep Sengupta and Bharath Subramaniyam.

Young GM R. Praggnanandhaa was, however, held to a draw by Stefan Pogosyan in his opener.

There are a bunch of 25 Indians, including 14 Grand Masters, participating in the ‘A’ group.

The nine-round Aeroflot Open concludes on February 27.