Thrish stuns Grandmaster Atalik

Chennai Grandmasters Deepan Chakkravarthy and RR Laxman too scored a full point from their first-round games. While Deepan had to wait for close to five hours before he could get the better of Gujarat’s Samdani Sahil Sagar, Laxman had an easy outing against Thaga Sheriff of Chennai. 

Deepan looked uncertain after giving an exchange in the Reti Opening against Sagar in a Queen and opposite coloured bishop ending, but managed to outwit his opponent. 

Top seed GM Timur Gareyev of US scored a comfortable victory on the top board, while the second board saw Russian Grandmaster Ivan Rozum shedding half a point to lower rated Harshal Patil. 

In a Kings Indian Defence game that lasted 75 moves, Thrish got the better of GM Suat Atalik of Turkey. An end game lapse in the fourth hour saw Suat Atalik going an exchange down, which Thrish Karthik converted precisely in his favor.

RESULTS (ROUND 1) (INDIANS UNLESS SPECIFIED): Kumar S lost to Gareyev Timur (USA); Rozum Ivan (Rus) drew with Patil Harshal; Lakshmi C lost to Tiviakov Sergei (Ned); Soloedovnichenko Yuri (Ukr) beat Kumthekar Shubham; Ghelani Dhairya lost to Tukhaev Adam (Ukr); Sivuk Vitaly (Ukr) beat Godson Merlin E; Atalik Suat (Tur) lost to Thrish Karthik; Kanishk S K lost to Pruijssers Roeland (Ned); Karthikeyan P beat Rohit S; Deepan Chakkravarthy beat Samdani Sahil Sagar.