Kelkar,Kulkarni march into lead

Top rated players Abhishek Kelkar and Chinmay Kulkarni along with eight others led the field after the first round on the inaugural day of the Shri Maheshwarand Saraswati Memorial 51st Maharashtra State Open Selection FIDE Rating Chess Tournament. The tournament has been organised by Buddhibal Kreeda Trust on behalf of the Maharashtra Chess Association under the auspices of the Pune District Chess Circle. The tournament is being played at Manohar Mangal Karyalaya.

Pune’s top-ranked player Abhishek Kelkar won his first round against Om Lakhotiya,while Chinmay Kulkarni playing with black pieces,scored a win against Meenakshi Bhoite.

Playing with white pieces in the opening round,Aniruddha Deshpande,Abhimanyu Purnaik,Pranav Shetty (Mumbai),Sai Arya Katkar,Sohan Phadke,Atul Dahale and Kiran Panditrao scored wins. Pratik Patil (Jalgaon),Mithil Ajgaonkar (Mumbai),Pawan Dodeja (Amravati) and Roshan Rangarajan,playing with black,ended leading the boards after round one.