Udupi: IMs go through first round of TMA Pai Chess with ease

Bellevision Media Network

Udupi, 26 Dec 2015: The Dr TMA Pai Memorial Open FIDE Rated Chess tournament organized by Manipal University, Manipal and Udupi district Chess Association was off to a great start on Saturday December 26 with 380 players in the fray at the Dr TMA Pai Hall here. Of them, 201 players are rated, five of them are International Masters and one, Rajdeep Sarkar from West Bengal is the current reigning national champion in the Under-17 category.

 

Earlier, the tournament was inaugurated by the Superintendent of Police Annamalai K also present on the occasion were the Pro-Chancellor Manipal University, Dr H S Ballal and the Vice-Chancellor, Dr H Vinod Bhat and others. The National B Chess Championship for the Blind was also simultaneously inaugurated and 102 players from all over the country are taking part in it. This event is being held in a separate hall.

 

 

With action in the Open Tournament taking place on 190 tables, the International Masters and FIDEMaster had no problem going through their first round with ease. There are a few septuagenarians and sexagenarians taking part in the tournament and they have been categorized separately.

 

While Rajdeep made short work of his opponent, Pratik S Borkar of Goa in the first round, the other five IMs also prevailed over their rivals without much ado. Tej Kumar M S of South Western Railways beat Deepti Lakshimi K of Karnataka, Stany G of Karnataka beat Mahesh A Shetti of Goa, Girinath P D S of South Central Railway beat Shiva Priya Halamane of Karnataka, D V Prasad of Karnataka overcame Muralidhar Rao M of Udupi and Ravi Gopal Hegde of Karnataka beat Aarvi Jain also of Karnataka.  

 

Two other Udupi players who lost the first round were, Rajgopal Shenoy who went down to Anil Kumar of Kerala and Dheeraj Pai BP who went down to Vinayak Kulkarni of Karnataka.