New Delhi: Unheralded 12-year-old Sankalp Gupta of Nagpur, Maharashtra created a major flutter in the very first round of the 14th Delhi Open as he shocked Italian Grandmaster David Alberto. The game was flowing along normal lines until Alberto lost a pawn, slipped into time-pressure as his clock ticked down, and eventually conceded defeat to the Maharashtra youngster.
Vinayak Kulkarni of Karnataka started the tournament on a positive note as he held Grandmaster Artur Gabrielian of Russia. Adhithya S of Tamil Nadu also held Hungarian Grandmaster Attila Czebe as Indians proved a solid match to the foreign grandmasters.
There were numerous instances of lower rated Indian youngsters holding their higher rated counterparts Gujarat’s Manush Shah, Karnataka’s Ojas Kulkarni held International Masters Shyaamnikhil P. and S. Nitin of Tamil Nadu respectively.
A total number of 200 players from 13 countries, which include 21 Grandmasters, 21 International Masters are taking part in the premier section of this 35 lakh prize money event while in the Category ‘B’ for the players below 1999 international rating which is underway simultaneously with the premier section attracted a total number of 602 players. The third category for the players below 1599 elo rating will start on Wednesday and this section already crossed the barrier 800 and entries are pouring day by day.
Earlier, in the opening ceremony, Mrs. Rashmi Singh, Patron Delhi Chess Association and Group Captain J Rajendra VSM, Chief Administrative Officer Air Force Station New Delhi formally inaugurated the tournament by making the customary first move in presence of Shri. Bharat Singh, CEO All India Chess Federation, Shri. Atul Gupta, Shri. Kapil Saxena, Joint Secretaries of All India Chess Federation, Shri. Dhiraj Raghuvanshi, President Chess Association Uttaranchal, Shri. AK Verma, Secretary Delhi Chess Association and Delhi’s Grandmaster Vaibhav Suri.
In the opening ceremony, Shri. Bharat Singh made a surprise move by announcing the next edition of this event with a record prize fund of Rs. 51 lakh in the year 2017.
Important Results Round-1 (Indians otherwise stated) :-
Anilkumar O T (0) lost to GM Grachev Boris of Russia (1); GM Ivan Popov of Russia (1) lost to Subhayan Kundu (0); Sankalp Gupta (1) beat GM Alberto David of Italy (0); GM Anton Demchenko of Russia (1) beat Choudhary Jitendra Kumar (0); Audi Ameya (0) lost to GM Yuri Solodovnichenko of Ukraine (1); GM Vitaly Sivuk of Ukraine (1) beat Suvradeepta Das (0); Pardeep Arora (0) lost to GM Mikhail Mozharov of Russia (1); GM Vladimir Belous of Russia (1) beat Sharang Sanjeev Kapoor (0); Chandreyee Hajra (0) lost to GM Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine (1); GM Lalith Babu MR (1) beat Vantika Agrawal (0); Sohan Phadke (0) lost to Vaibhav Suri (1); Vitaliy Bernadskiy of Ukraine (1) beat Kautil Kakumanu (0); Vinayak Kulkarni (.5) drew with GM Artur Gabrielian of Russia (.5); GM Ernst Sipke of Netherlands (1) beat Gukesh D (0); Anish Gandhi (0) lost to GM Esen Baris of Turkey
