Jaipur, February 13, 2024: : The 11th National Amateur Chess Championship got underway with record entries of 660 players at the Sawai Mansingh Indoor Stadium here on Tuesday.
Almost all the top seeded players in various categories had to face tough competition in the opening round.
In the open category of 2300 rating, third seed FIDE Master Arvinderpreet Singh (2057) had to face an unexpected defeat from Haniya Shah (1472) of Gujarat.
In the same women’s rating category, Shivamashika (1465) of Tamil Nadu caused the first major upset by toppling top seed Eshwar Krishna (1843) of Andhra Pradesh.
On the other hand, in the open category of 2000 rating, Prabal Pandey (1402) of UP snatched half a point by drawing the match with top seed R Shyam (1980).
In this rating category, all the top players in the women’s category earned one point by winning their respective matches according to the reports published in timesofindia.indiatimes.com.
Even in the open category of 1700 rating category, which has the highest number of players in the competition, the path for the top players was not easy. Adhavya Narayan (1013) of Delhi opened his account by drawing a match with fourth seeded UP player Gopal Krishna Maheshwari (1653).
In the same group, Karthik Raja (1012) of TN drew with fifth seeded Pankaj Sharma of Rajasthan. Similarly, Navya Rathi (1031) of Rajasthan created a stir by holding Akshay Sathi of Karnataka to a draw.
Earlier, Sanjay Chauhan, chief general manager, GAIL, lit the lamp in the traditional manner and inaugurated the competition by making a virtual first move on the chess board.
