Swapnil Shah upsets top seed Jadhav

Mumbai, December 3: National `B' blind chess champion Swapnil Shah caused the first major upset in the Global Telesystems National `A' che...

Mumbai, December 3: National `B’ blind chess champion Swapnil Shah caused the first major upset in the Global Telesystems National `A’ chess championship for the blind when he outplayed state-mate Charudatta Jadhav here on Sunday.

The top 14 blind chess players are taking part in the tournament being held at Sachivalaya Gymkhana here which will decide the best blind chess player in the country for the year 2000.

The four-member Indian team which will participate in the international chess tournaments for the blind in future will also be selected after this meet.

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However, the top seed Madan Bagayatkar did not have much difficulty in getting past Rajesh Rajput of Gujarat. Madan played true to form and won the game in just 24 moves.

Jadhav-Shah match was the talk of the day as Jadhav is a regular member of Indian team and Shah is considered as the most hard opponent. Jadhav resigned after making a blunder and seeing the possibility of being two pawns down and Swapnil’s pieces assuming menacing positions.

In a match between father and son, Shirish Patil and his father Vasant Patil fought tooth and nail only to agree to split the points finally.

Results (Round I): Vasant Patil (Mah) drew Shirish Patil (Mah); Swapnil Shah (Mah) bt Charudatta Jadhav (Mah); N Siddaiah (AP) bt Suryakant Raut (Mah); Rajesh Rajput (Guj) lost to Madan Bagayatkar (Mah); Sanjay Karandikar (Mah) lost to Ahipal Singh (Har); Gaurav Gadodia (Mah) lost to P Balaraman (Ker).