Top 4 players pull out of junior chess
LUCKNOW: Top four players in the fray, including defending champion Sehaj Grover, gave a slip to the Junior National Under-19 Chess Championship, here on Wednesday.
Youngest grand master of India Grover along with two other grand masters Srinath Narayanan, Vidith Santosh Gujrathi and internatioal master Debashish Das didn’t turn up even as the event got off to a flying start at the Bora Instituite of Management Science, almost 12-km from city on Wednesday evening.
The absence of key players jolted the organisers as they knew that the participation of top stars could have given a new boost to the game of chess in the state.
“Certainly, their absence has robbed the charm of the event,” was the quick reaction from AK Raizada, secretary of the UP Sports Chess Association.
“Participation of top players always give others a chance to learn from them and also an opportunity to rub shoulders with them,” he said, adding, “Still we have one international master and two fide masters in the fray in the boys section.”
On day one, IM Prasanna Raghuram Rao scored an easy with against Abhijith M while playing with black, where as FM Sayantahn Das brushed aside RM Subramanian. FM Aravindh Chithambarama Vr too defeated Sbhubham Kaushik with black pieces.
In the girls section, WFM Rucha Pujari, WFM J Saranya, WIM Furtado Maria Ivana, WFMs M Mahalaxmi, GK Monnisha and Seshadri Srija scored full points, scoring convincing first round wins.