Secunderabad based N Krishna Teja stunned fourth seed International Master P Karthikeyan of Tamil Nadu while Goa lad Ritviz Parab outwitted seasoned campaigner International Master P Konguvel of PSPB.
Playing white side of English opening, Karthikeyan overlooked his opponent's Knight move and blundered his queen on 22nd move to hand over full point to his rival from Andhra Pradesh rival, while Parab used his Queen and Knight to good effect to outwit his fancied rival in 31 moves.
Apart from Karthikeyan and Konguvel, as expected almost all the top seeded players posted easy victories to advance to the second round with full points in their kitty.
Top seed and defending champion International Master Vikramaditya Kulkarni of Railways defeated Jalpan Bhatt of Gujarat while second seed International Master S Satyapragyan of Air India had an easy outing against Ankit Gajwa of Madhya Pradesh.
Third seeded International Master Debashis Das made short work of Kotepalli Sai Nirupama of Andhra Pradesh.
In other surprises of the day, highly rated Bitan Banerjee of West Bengal was held by Yogit S of Tamil Nadu, while IM PDS Girinath was forced to sign peace by young Rohan Ahuja of Goa.
A total number of 236 players, which include 24 International Masters, 1 Women Grandmaster and 213 International rated chess players from across the country are participating in the championship.
