Aravind, Harikrishnan win in Chennai Open chess tourney

M Aravind registered a shock win over International Master Rahul Sangma while R A Harikrishnan defeated grandmaster Nisha Mohota.

Chennai: M Aravind registered a shock win over International Master Rahul Sangma while R A Harikrishnan upset the applecart of Woman Grandmaster Nisha Mohota at the end of the first round of the SDAT-RMK 4th Chennai Open Chess tournament on Wednesday.

R Vaishalie put it across experienced International Master N Sudhakar Babu of Indian Bank. The day offered a tough start for many seeds with International Masters Vijayalakshmi Subburaman, Suvrajit Saha and Vaibhav Suri conceding draws to their lower rated opponents. Top seed Grandmaster Aleksij Aleksandrov had a relatively easy outing in the first board against Sarbajit Adhikari. The Indian challenge led by Grandmasters Sethuraman, Deepan Chakkravarthy, Neelotpal Das and Dibyendu Barua took off smoothly with minimum resistance from lower seeds. So far, 297 players including 16 Grandmasters, 31 International Masters, 2 WGMs and 3 WIMs from 15 countries have confirmed their entries. The eleven round Swiss system tournament will run till January 12. PTI