Smooth sailing for seeds, Vladimir Belous held to a draw

Smooth sailing for seeds, Vladimir Belous held to a draw
R.R.Vasudevan

Seeds led by Grandmaster Boris Grachev (Russia), were through to comfortable wins in the 8th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Chess tournament 2016 for Sakthi Group Dr N Mahalingam trophy at Nehru Stadium, Chennai here today.

Grachev put it across Delhi based veteran V S Negi, while Delhi Open Champion Popov was stretched by Chennai boy G B Harshavardhan before he scored the full point. In the upset of the day,  Soham Datar held Grandmaster Vladimir Belous of Russia to a draw.

Earlier, the tournament was inaugurated by India’s first International Master and Arjuna Awardee Manuel Aaron, who extolled the growth of chess in India during the last decade and made the symbolic first move inaugurating the event.

Shri D V Sundar, Vice President, FIDE, during his speech added that the Grandmaster and International Master count in India has grown multifold since 2005. He further highlighted India holding the highest number of registered players with FIDE (World Chess Federation). International Arbiter and Tournament Director R Anantharam proposed the vote of thanks.

Results Round 1(Indians unless mentioned) – Boris Grachev (Rus) bt V S Negi, G B Harshavardhan lost to Ivan Popov (Rus), Raahul V S lost to Demchenko Anton (Rus), Yuri Solodovnichenko (Ukr) bt Gavi Siddhayya, R Prajesh lost to Vitaly Sivuk (Ukr), Mozharov Mikhail (Rus) bt Mota Pankit, Soham Datar drew with Vladimir Belous (Rus), Tukhavev (Ukr) bt Arjun Adappa, Azikri Gur (Isr) lost to Bernadskiy Vitaly (Ukr), Gabrielian Artur (Rus) bt Arpita Mukherjee.