Dubai Open Chess: Praggnanandhaa starts with a win; Arjun Erigaisi gets a walkover

Second seed Arjun Erigaisi, the highest rated among 78 Indians in the 172-player field, had it easy after his Filipino rival Rustum Tolentino did not turn up.

The 17-year-old, seeded four, tamed Iran’s Reza Mahdavi to be among the 82 first-round winners. (File Photo) | Photo Credit: PTI

After making waves in online rapid format, R. Praggnanandhaa was back on course to improve his standard rating by making a winning start in the Dubai Open chess tournament at the Sheikh Saeed Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Hall at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club on Saturday.

The 17-year-old, seeded four, tamed Iran's Reza Mahdavi to be among the 82 first-round winners.

Second seed Arjun Erigaisi, the highest rated among 78 Indians in the 172-player field, had it easy after his Filipino rival Rustum Tolentino did not turn up.

As expected, it was easy for most Grandmasters but 24th seed Arjun Kalyan (rated 2499) struggled to a 79-move draw against Aditya Gampa (1980).

Leading results (Indians unless stated):

First round: Alexandr Predke (FIDE) bt Shubh Laddha (Mas); Rustum Tolentino (Phi) gave a walkover to Arjun Erigaisi; Amin Tabatabaei (Iri) bt Ojas Kulkarni; Reza Mahdavi (Iri) lost to R. Praggnanandha; Aradhya Garg lost to Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Ger); Abhijeet Gupta bt Anish Gandhi; Mahitosh Dey lost to S. P. Sethuraman; Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (Arm) bt Vaibhav Raut; Manish Cristiano lost to Raunak Sadhwani. Aravindh Chithambaram bt Parag Mehdi Hasan (Ban); S. Prasanna lost to Harsha Bharathakoti; P. Iniyan bt Aniruddh Chatterjee; Shardul Gagare bt Harshal Shahi; Aditya Gampa drew with Arjun Kalyan.