KOZHIKODE, March 5: Former and current national junior champions Abhijit Kunte and Krishnan Sasikiran did India proud on the opening day of the category 10 Indian Independence Jubilee Cup GM chess tournament here today by earning creditable results in Round One.Abhijit Kunte outwitted seven-time national champion and India's latest GM Pravin Thipsay in Ruy Lopez in 52 moves while Sasikiran fought back from a lost position to hold top seed GM Utut Adianto of Indonesia in 57 moves of an English Opening.Kunte got better in the middle game as black opted for the Chigorin Defence and won a pawn after the first time control on the Queenside. With all his pieces in good combination, Kunte took complete control and won an exchange on move 52.Sasikiran got into a bad position quite early and lost a pawn in the middle game. In a simplified Queen and knight versus Queen and bishop ending, Adianto blundered the pawn and had nothing more than a draw. Otherwise, India had a poor outing when GM norm aspirants PKonguvel of Indian Oil Corporation and Krishnamoorthy Murugan suffered first round reverses at Hotel Hyson.RESULTSFirst roundZia-urRahman (Bangladesh) 1 bt P Konguvel (India) 0; V Komliakov (Moldova) 1 bt K Murugan (India) 0; D V Prasad (India) 0.5 drew with D B Barua (India) 0.5; Abhijit Kunte (India) 1 bt P M Thipsay (India) 0; Lanka Ravi (India) 0 lost to Yurtaev (Kyrghistan) 1; Adianto (Indonesia) 0.5 drew with Sasikiran (India) 0.5.
