Top players such as IM Diptayan Ghosh, IM Murali Karthikeyan, FM Arvindh Chithabaram in the boys section and WFM N Mahalakshmi, WFM GK Monnisha and WFM R Vaishali in the girls section won their respective matches on the first day of National Sub Junior (U-15) Chess here today.
Fresh from winning World Youth Chess Olympiad in China, Diptayan outwitted Deeptesh Karmalkar of Goa, while child prodigy Arvindh got the better of Dipanjan Chowdhury of Bengal.
Diptayan played English Opening and Arvindh Najdorf opening to settle the issue in 30 moves.
In the girls section, top seed N Mahalakshmi faced a strong challenge from Shardha Kucheria of Bengal before the Tamil Nadu girl clinched the issue in 27 moves.
238 players including 148 boys are competing in the National Sub Junior (U 15) for Boys and Girls.
