DINDIGUL: It wasn't an ideal start for the top four seeds in the 45th National `B' chess championship at the PSNA College of Engineering and Technology here on Monday as all of them were held to draws.

While Abhijeet Gupta, M.R. Venkatesh, D.P. Singh and Sundararajan Kidambi, seeded first to fourth respectively, had a day to forget, Ajay Virwani, Pon. N. Krithika, M. Paramasivam and M.V. Lakshmi Narayanan had reasons to look pleased after taking half-a-point off their much stronger rivals.

That left Sriram Jha the highest seed to post a win on the first day; the fifth seed and former champion had little trouble in dismissing the challenge from Atul Dahale.

Taking it lightly?

On the top board, Abhijeet perhaps took his rival Ajay, rated exactly 400 Elo points below him, a bit lightly. Playing from the white side of a Semi-Slav Defence, the top-seed looked too eager to attack, giving pawns.

Ajay, playing only his second National `B', was under time pressure and decided to give perpetual checks by sacrificing his queen.

"This game has given me a lot of confidence," said the Indore-based Ajay after the game that lasted 26 moves.

Krithika and M.R. Venkatesh drew after 46 moves of Sicilian Pelican, while D.P. Singh and Paramasivam agreed to split the point after 28 moves of King's Indian Defence. Lakshmi Narayanan and Kidambi signed the peace treaty after 30 moves of Ruy Lopez.

Earlier, the tournament was inaugurated by Latha Narasimhan, Regional Manager, Corporate Communications, LIC, Chennai.

Important results (first round): Abhijeet Gupta drew with Ajay Virwani; Pon. N. Krithika drew with M.R. Venkatesh; D.P. Singh drew with M. Paramasivam; M.V. Lakshmi Narayanan drew with Sundararajan Kidambi; Sriram Jha bt Atul Dahale; Rakesh Kulkarni lost to Saptarshi Roy.

K. Ratnakaran bt L. Mahendra Venkat; Linda Rangarajan drew with S. Poobesh Anand; S. Satyapragyan bt Abhishek Kelkar; Tamal Chakrabarti drew with Aswin Jayaram; Himanshu Sharma bt Himal Gusain; S. Vasudevan lost to P. Konguvel; P.D.S. Girinath bt H. Venkatesh.

Binju Oommen drew with P. Shyam Nikhil; Roktim Bandyopadhyay bt Kanuri Tejaswi; Sameer Kathmale lost to B. Adhiban; G.B. Prakash bt Awomi Mughaho; P. Satyanarayana lost to Ram S. Krishnan; Prathamesh Mokal bt M. Aribam Sharma; Vivek Astir lost to Neeraj Kumar Mishra.

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