Good day for India

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 India’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 Queen’s Indian Defence against Babatsayeva of Kazakhstan and found a mating attack in 44 moves. Pallavi Shah played the King’s Gambit, a rare opening at this level, against her Iranian opponent Y Khachatorrian. The game was decided in Pallavi’s favour in 38 moves.

Mahesh adopted the Queen’s Gambit and got the better after black’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 Iran’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.

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.