Fourth seed Ziaur Rahman, the highest-rated GM in the fray, was the biggest casualty after running into a resolute National junior champion Kumar Gaurav who won in 66 moves. Rahman, playing white in an English Opening game, was in cruise mode against Gaurav until he missed a tactical trick and had to give up a rook for a knight on the 34th move. Seventh seed Thej Kumar faced unexpected resistance from women’s National premier player P. Bala Kannamma before escaping with a draw. Important results (first round): Open: Divya Deshmukh lost to Abhijeet Gupta; Ziaur Rahman (Ban) lost to Gaurav Kumar; Abhijit Kunte bt Rani Hamid (Ban), P. Bala Kannamma drew with M.S. Thej Kumar; Sahaj Grover drew with Naitik Mehta; Rohit Vassan bt Enamul Hossain (Ban); Pravin Thipsay drew with Manish Anto Cristiano; Saksham Rautela drew with Tania Sachdev.

Source: The Hindu July 03, 2017 16:52 UTC