Seeds find it easy

Sangli, May 10: Most of the seeded players, including top seed P Konguvel, DV Prasad and England8217;s Andrew Webster had it easy on the opening day of the 32nd S K Vaidya Memorial Fide Rated Chess Tournament today.

Former National champion Konguvel sailed through comfortably against unheralded Asit Chaudhary. The other IMs Prasad, Webster, Anup Deshmukh, V Koshy, N Sudhakar Babu, Asian Junior champion Tejas Bakre and seasoned Sharad Tilak also registered comprehensive victories against their opponents.

Shankar Roy of Eastern Railways was held to a draw by unseeded Jugal Kishore Das of West Bengal in the only major upset of the day.

In a minor flutter, 14-year-old Mumbai youngster Srinivasan Iyer settled to a draw after missing several winning opportunities against former National A player G B Joshi of Indian Airlines.