National under-17 chess ch'ship: Vrushti forces top seed Saina to draw

Odisha’s Saina Salonika was forced to a draw by 28 seed Vrushti Shah in the opening round.

Men's top seed Aronyak Ghosh got off to a winning start.

West Bengal’s Aronyak Ghosh, the top seed in the open section, had a winning start in the 30 National under-17 chess championship at the Oberon Mall here on Saturday evening. He defeated Gujarat’s Ajmera Tanmay.

But the girls’ No. 1, Odisha’s Saina Salonika was forced to a draw by 28 seed Vrushti Shah in the opening round.  

Select results (first round): Open: Ajmera Tanmay (Guj, 0) lost to Aronyak Ghosh (WB, 1), Neelesh Saha (WB, 1) bt S. Nithyan (Ker, 0), S. Rohith (TN, 0) lost to Vatsal Singhania (Jha, 1), Utsab Chatterjee (WB, 1) bt Shah Devansh (Mah, 0), Sanchi Mukherjee (Jha, 0.5) drew with Ayush Sharma (MP, 0.5) Girls: Vrushti Shah (Guj, 0.5) drew with Saina Salonika (Odi, 0.5), Shanya Mishra (Del, 1) bt B. Alekhya (AP, 0), Prasiddhi Bhat (Kar, 0) lost to L. Jyothsna (TN, 1), Sazmriddhaa Ghosh (WB, 0) lost to Diya Chowdhury (WB, 1), Shreya Das (Bih, 0) lost to Diya Chowdhury (WB, 1)