Sasikiran begins on winning note
Indian chess players had a good opening day in the Smith & Williamson British Chess Championships, which started on Monday, at the Riviera Centre in Torquay, with most of them winning their first round matches.
The event is open to British and Commonwealth players and is being played on a Swiss Open type format. There is a strong Indian entry this year with almost all the top players participating in the event.
Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran is the top seed in the tournament. He had an impressive win in the first round, against GM Alex Wohl of Australia.
Wohl tried to play quietly against the Caro Kann Defence but was greeted with an onslaught on the kingside and once Sasikiran's king reached safety on the opposite wing the game was effectively over.
Fellow-Indian GM Pendyla Harikrishna blew a very strong position against his compatriot Woman GM S Vijayalaskshmi and was forced to settle for a draw.
The other Indian players to win their first round matches were V Saravanan, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Sandipan Chandra, R B Ramesh, Bhagyashree Thipsay and Swati Ghate.
Three players, Dibyendu Barua, Koneru Humpy and Subbaraman Meenakshi drew their matches, while Aarthie Ramasawamy and Saheli Dhar-Barua lost theirs.
Abhijeet Kunte had a first round bye.
Results:
Round 1
Bd WHITE Result BLACK PIN
1 GALLAGHER,Joseph G (0) 1 - 0 DEVEREAUX,Maxim L (0) 14 40
2 WOHL,Aleksander H (0) 0 - 1 SASIKIRAN,Krishnan (0) 27 1
3 SPEELMAN,Jon (0) 1 - 0 LITTLEWOOD,Paul E. (0) 2 28
4 VIJAYALASKSHMI,Subbar (0) ½ - ½ HARIKRISHNA,Pentala (0) 29 3
5 ROWSON,Jonathan (0) ½ - ½ MCDONALD,Neil (0) 4 30
6 SARAVANAN,Venkatachal (0) 1 - 0 EMMS,John M (0) 31 5
7 MCSHANE,Luke J (0) 1 - 0 RAMSAWAMY,Aarthie (0) 6 48
8 KNOTT,Simon JB (0) ½ - ½ BARUA,Dibyendu (0) 33 7
9 LALIC,Bogdan (0) ½ - ½ WALL,Gavin (0) 8 34
10 LEE,Graham (0) ½ - ½ FLEAR,Glenn C. (0) 35 9
11 HEBDEN,Mark (0) 1 - 0 PERT,Richard (0) 10 36
12 SHERWIN,James (0) 0 - 1 GORMALLY,Daniel (0) 37 11
13 GANGULY,Sura Sekhar (0) 1 - 0 HANLEY,Craig (0) 12 38
14 SOWRAY,Peter (0) ½ - ½ TURNER,Matthew J (0) 39 13
15 COLLINS,Sam (0) 0 - 1 Bye 41 BYE
16 SANDIPAN,Chandra (0) 1 - 0 COX,John (0) 16 42
17 EAMES,Robert (0) 0 - 1 WARD,Chris G (0) 43 17
18 WELLS,Peter (0) ½ - ½ HASLINGER,Stewart G (0) 18 44
19 HOUSKA,Miroslav (0) 0 - 1 Bye 45 BYE
20 KONERU,Humpy (0) ½ - ½ MUIR,Andrew J. (0) 20 46
21 TAN,Desmond (0) 1 - 0 LANE,Gary (0) 47 21
22 RICHARDS,Heather (0) ½ - ½ PERT,Nicholas (0) 49 23
23 RAMESH,R.B (0) 1 - 0 LEDGER,Dave J (0) 24 50
24 EVANS-QUEK,Suan Shiau (0) ½ - ½ JONES,Richard S. (0) 51 67
25 WILLIAMS,Simon K (0) ½ - ½ MEENAKSHI,Subbaraman (0) 26 52
26 BURNETT,Jim (0) 1 - 0 MASON,Don (0) 79 53
27 THIPSAY,Bhagyashree (0) 1 - 0 WILLMOTH,Robert (0) 54 80
28 TAYLOR,Robert Mark (0) ½ - ½ BERRY,Neil M (0) 81 56
29 D'COSTA,Lorin (0) ½ - ½ SHAW,David A (0) 57 82
30 NIXON,Thomas CM (0) 1 - 0 HUTCHINSON,Paul A. (0) 83 58
31 BIGG,Andrew J (0) ½ - ½ BUCKLEY,Melanie (0) 59 84
32 DOUGLAS,Timothy (0) 1 - 0 THOMAS,Nicholas (0) 85 60
33 TRENT,Lawrence (0) 1 - 0 GREGORY,Stephen J (0) 61 86
34 MARTYN,Rafe (0) 0 - 1 SIMPSON,James (0) 78 62
35 BUCKLEY,Simon (0) 0 - 1 GHATE,Swati (0) 63 103
36 ASHTON,,Adam (0) ½ - ½ JONES,Gawain C (0) 89 64
37 WHEELER,John F. (0) 0 - 1 WU,Li (0) 65 91
38 RUDD,Jack (0) 1 - 0 TAYLOR,Peter P. (0) 93 68
39 DHAR-BARUA,Saheli (0) 0 - 1 HUTCHINSON,Norman (0) 69 96
40 EVANS-QUEK,Debbie (0) ½ - ½ ADDISON,Bret C (0) 94 70
41 LYELL,Mark (0) ½ - ½ GOLDBERG,Jeff (0) 71 97
42 COOTE,Trevor D. (0) 1 - 0 DORRINGTON,Christophe (0) 98 72
43 HOWELL,David W (0) 0 - 1 TATLOW,Stephen (0) 73 99
44 WHITE,Ian R. (0) 0 - 1 MUTTON,Jonathan B (0) 95 74
45 WOODWARD,Timothy (0) 1 - 0 TRUMAN,Richard G. (0) 75 100
46 MCMASTER,Richard (0) ½ - ½ SNAPE,Ian L (0) 101 76
47 GRANT,Jonathan (0) 1 - 0 HARBORNE,Matthew J (0) 77 102
48 REES,Ioan (0) - Bye 104 BYE
49 WEBB,Laurence (0) 0 - 1 Bye 55 BYE
50 MAMOMBE,Kudzanai (0) 0 - 1 Bye 87 BYE
51 SUMMERSCALE,Aaron (0) 1 - 0 Bye 15 BYE
52 KUNTE,Abhijit (0) 1 - 0 Bye 19 BYE
