Arshiya Das shines against Ortik Nigmatov
Among other minor upsets, 16-year-old rated 1334 Anabil Goswami drew with IM Rahul Sangma. 14-year-old Gairick Saha held WGM Srija Seshadri to a draw.
Arshiya - Nigmatov: 0.5-0.5
11-year-old Arshiya Das (1407) decided to sacrifice a pawn at first to launch an attack against IM Ortik Nigmatov's (UZB, 2445) kingside.
White played 24.Rf1 with the intention of playing f4. 24...Nxe5 only helped White's cause. The game continued in an almost forced line 25.Nxe5 Qxe5 26.f4 Qc7 27.fxg5 Bxg5 28.Bxg5 hxg5 29.Qxg5+ Kf8 30.Rxf7+!
Not every attack has to culminate in a huge a material gain, sometimes gaining a pawn is enough too. 30.Rxf7+ allows White to gain a pawn. 30....Qxf7 31.Qxd8+ Kg7 32.Qg5+ Qg6 33.Qxg6+ Kxg6 34.Bxd5 exd5 the extra pawn is not too much now. Black overpushed things and arrived at a lost rook endgame.
White is winning this endgame but it is not an easy one. The 11-year-old could not manage to find it, thus his opponent escaped with a draw. Can you find out the precise winning plan for White here?
Divya - Darsh: 0-1
13-year-old Darsh Shetty (1336) played amazing chess to beat the newly crowned National Women WGM Divya Deshmukh (2301).
The little boy showed great courage as he offered his rook for exchange 29...Re6. After 30.Rxe6 fxe6 31.Nd2 Ne2+ 32.Kh2 Ne4 Black just centralized his knight at d4 beautifully. How shall White break the bind? It is certainly not easy.
A few inaccuracies led to Black forcing the rook exchange 37...Rc2+ and liquifying the position to a winning knight endgame.
Highlights
A few interesting finishes
For more Round 1 photos, please click here.
A total of 254 players including 13 GMs, 16 IMs, 2 WGMs and 3 WIMs are taking part from 11 federations across the world including India. The tournament is organized by All Assam Chess Association from 14th to 20th March 2022 at Guwahati, Assam. The ten-round Swiss league tournament has a time control of 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1
