Sidhant, Kumar impress; Aravindh loses

Sidhant Mohapatra held second seeded Russian Grioriy Oparin in the opening round of the World junior chess championship here on Monday.

Seventh seed Aravindh Chithambaram suffered a shock at the hands of Serbia’s Pavle Dimic

Sidhant Mohapatra held second seeded Russian Grioriy Oparin in the opening round of the World junior chess championship here on Monday.

However, seventh seed Aravindh Chithambaram suffered a shock at the hands of Serbia’s Pavle Dimic. On the brighter side, S. L. Narayanan
and M. Karthikeyan, seeded two and four, started their campaigns on a triumphant note.

If Sidhant, rated 2371 proved equal to Oparin, rated 2606, former National junior champion Kumar Gaurav stunned Kantor Gergely, rated
217 points higher at 2514.

The results (Indians unless stated)
First round: Sidhant Mohapatra drew with Grioriy Oparin (Rus); Krisha Teja lost to S. L. Narayanan; Noe Tutisani (Geo) lost to M. Karthikeyan; Aravindh Chithambaram lost to Pavle Dimic (Srb); Vaibhav Suri drew with Andrei Macovei (Mda); Raunak Sadhwani drew with Awonder
Liang (USA); Kumar Gaurav bt Gergely Kantor (Hun); Peter Urbanc (Slo) lost to R. Praggnanandhaa; Shardul Gagare drew with Dincer Tasdogen
(Tur); Harsha Bharathakoti bt Maarten De Vleeschauwer (Bel); Antenaina Rakotomaharo (Mad) bt Tarini Goyal; Mohamad Nubairshah Shaikh bt Rowan Willanthagamuwa (Aus).