Tirupathi: Former Commonwealth Champion and International Master Atanu Lahiri of LIC suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Visakh N R of Tamilnadu while his elder brother Vignesh N R stunned National Under-25 champion and International Master Rahul Sangma of Railways in the second round of the ongoing 50th National Challengers Chess Championship now underway here at Ramatulasi Kalyana Mandam on Saturday.
If these two upset were not enough for the seeded players, talented Andhra Pradesh youngster Praneeth Surya held fifth seed International Master Swayams Mishra of Orissa to a creditable draw while seasoned International Master Varugueese Koshy of PSPB and International Master D P Singh of Railways were beaten by unheralded Lakshmi Sandeep Naidu of Andhra Pradesh and Rishi Sardana of Delhi respectively.
At the top of the tables it was a different story as top seeded International Master Vikramaditya Kulkarni had it easy against Niladri Shekhar Bhattacharya of West Bengal while Rajib Dhar of Assam proved no match for second seed S Satyapragyan of Air India. Third seed and World Under-18 Bronze medalist Debashis Das of Orissa defeated Anjan Mallick of West Bengal in the second round encounter.
Third round of the championship were 236 players from across India participating is now underway at the time of report.
Important Results (Round-2) :- Niladri Shekhar Bhattacharya of West Bengal (1) lost to IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni of Railways (2); IM S Satyapragyan of Air India (1) beat Rajib Dhar of Assam (1); Anjan Mallick of West Bengal (1) lost to IM Debashis Das of Orissa (2); K Praneeth Surya of Andhra Pradesh (1.5) drew with Swayams Mishra of Orissa (1.5); FM Diptayan Ghosh of West Bengal (2) beat Manish Joshi of Madhya Pradesh (1); Abhishek Kelkar of Maharashtra (1.5) drew with IM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury of Railways (1.5); IM Saptarshi Roy of Railways (2) beat Vikas Sharma of Punjab (1); Abhilash Reddy M L of Andhra Pradesh (1.5) drew with IM Suvrajit Saha of Railways (1.5); FM Rajesh VAV of Tamilnadu (1.5) drew with Chaithanyaa K G of Tamilnadu (1.5); Singh P K of Bihar (1) lost to IM Dinesh Sharma of LIC (2); Atul Dahale of Maharashtra (1) lost to IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh of Tamilnadu (2); Narayanan S L of Kerala (1.5) drew with Santu Mondal of West Bengal (1.5); Sanjay N of Karnataka (2) beat Santanu Borpatra Gohain of Assam (1); Pritam Singh of Jharkhand (1) lost to IM Praveen Kumar C of Railways (2); IM Murali Krishnan B T of Railways (2) beat FM Shantharam KV of Indian Bank (1); IM Atanu Lahiri of LIC (1) lost to Visakh N R of Tamilnadu (2); Swaraj Palit of Jharkhand (1.5) drew with Karthikeyan Murali of Tamilnadu (1.5); IM Rahul Sangma of Railways (1) lost to Vignesh N R of Tamilnadu (2); Lakshmi Naryanan M V of Tamilnadu (1.5) drew with Krishna CRG of Andhra Pradesh (1.5); IM Praksh G B of Indian Bank (2) beat Arvinder Preet Singh of Punjab (1).
