Asian Chess Championship: Praggnanandhaa, Tania Sachdev win after draw in first round

R. Praggnanandhaa and Tania Sachdev, the top seeds in their sections, tasted victories following their first-round drawn encounters.

GM Praggnanandhaa playing at the 44th Chess Olympiad held at Mamallapuram on August 8, 2022. | Photo Credit: Velankanni Raj B

For the second straight day, several leading names struggled to play to their reputation in both sections of the Asian Chess championship here.

As a result, seventh seed M. Kartikeyan headed a pack of 11 leaders with two points in the Open category, much like 10th seed Soumya Swaminathan did with four others in the women’s section.

R. Praggnanandhaa and Tania Sachdev, the top seeds in their sections, tasted victories following their first-round drawn encounters.

If young M. Pranesh stunned sixth seed Aravindh Chithambaram, another Chennai-resident Rakshitta Ravi shocked fourth seed and former champion Bhakti Kulkarni. Reigning National champion Divya Deshmukh surprisingly lost to Vietnamese Nguyen Thi Mai Hung.

Leading second round results (Indians unless stated):

Open: Sumiya Bilguun (Mgl, 1.5) drew with S. L. Narayanan (1.5); Arystanbek Urazayev (Kaz, 1.5) drew with S. P. Sethuraman (1.5); M. Pranesh (2) bt Aravindh Chithambaram (1); M. Karthikeyan (2) bt M. R. Venkatesh (1); L. R. Srihari (1) lost to B. Adhiban (2); Shamsiddin Vokhidov (Uzb, 1.5) drew with Nitish Belurkar (1.5); Leon Mendonca (2) bt Ganzorig Amartuvshin (Mgl, 1); M. Shyam Sundar (2) bt Saidakbar Saydaliev (Uzb, 1); Azat Nurmamedov (Tkm, 1) lost to Pranav Anand (2); Koustav Chatterjee (2) bt Krishna Teja (1); R. Praggnanandhaa (1.5) bt Ortik Nigmatov (0.5).

Women: Rakshitta Ravi (2) bt Bhakti Kulkarni (1); Divya Deshmukh (1) lost to Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie, 1); Saina Salonika (1) lost to Soumya Swaminathan (1); N. Priyanka (1.5) drew with Srishti Pandey (1.5); Liya Kurmangaliyeva (Kaz, 2) bt Mary Ann Gomes (1); Amina Kairbekova (Kaz, 1.5) drew with Swati Ghate (1.5); Kiran Manisha Mohanty (2) bt Xeniya Balabayeva (Kaz, 1); Tania Sachdev (1.5) bt Srija Seshadri (0.5); Padmini Rout (1) drew with Sakshi Chitlange (0.5); Vantika Agarwal (1.5) bt V. Varshini (0.5); Aakanksha Hagawane (1) drew with Eesha Karavade (1).