Good day for India

RASHT IRAN, May 9: India enjoyed a profitable first round in the Asian Junior and Age-Group Chess Championships here today with five of th...

RASHT IRAN, May 9: India enjoyed a profitable first round in the Asian Junior and Age-Group Chess Championships here today with five of the eight participants getting through the first round comfortably. The surprise of the opening round from the Indian view was Laisenjam Mahesh, a student of the DAV Public School, Imphal, who shocked second seed Subalei of Qatar in the under-10 boys section.

The other Indian winners in Round One were P Harikrishna in the under-14 boys section, Deepan Chakravaraty u-12, Vijayalakshmi Subburaman, Pallavi Shah, both in the under-20 girls category.

Tejas Bakre, who began his campaign with black pieces, had to be content with a draw against Arestanov Timur of Kazakhstan in 50 moves of the Catalan Opening in a same coloured Bishop ending with seven pawns each.

Apart from India8217;s exploits, one of the leading lights of the championship suffered reverse in the first round. Alavi Javedi Mogaddam of Iran, the Under-10 world champion, who is playing in the Under-12 category,lost to A Filipov of Uzbekistan. Alavi, a hero here, fell in 35 moves of Guico Piano.

Vijayalakshmi kept the Bishop pair in the Queen8217;s Indian Defence against Babatsayeva of Kazakhstan and found a mating attack in 44 moves. Pallavi Shah played the King8217;s Gambit, a rare opening at this level, against her Iranian opponent Y Khachatorrian. The game was decided in Pallavi8217;s favour in 38 moves.

Mahesh adopted the Queen8217;s Gambit and got the better after black8217;s seventh move. The Indian slowly built up a good position and found a decisive attack in 30 moves with his rook and knight working in union.

Aarthie Ramaswamy was the only Indian girl to lose but she did so after enjoying a winning position against Iran8217;s Mofidi Sara. Aarthie, the sub-junior girls champion, was a piece up in the Sozin Attack but she fell into a trap and had to lose heavy material by move 28.

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Deepan Chakravarty got a fine position by move 28 after exchanging Queens and then promoted his Queenside pawn to create a fresh Queen 30 moveslater. The game was over in 64 moves.

The boys and girls u-20 sections have 11 round each while the Boys u-10 section has a nine-round Swiss league system.