A good start for a lot of Indians
FM Nikhil Dixit, IM V Saravanan and FM Sharan Rao drew their respective games against third seed GM Anton Demchenko, GM Aleksandar Indjic (SRB) and GM Aleksandar Kovacevic (SRB) respectively. Nikhil and Saravanan had a tiny window of opportunity to push further in the endgame. Sharan showed perseverance after being worse for the majority of the game. National Women 2022 runner-up, WIM Sakshi Chitlange defeated reigning National Junior champion, IM Neelash Saha.
Arpita - Muradli: 1-0
WIM Arpita Mukherjee (2281) launched a devastating attack on GM Mahammad Muradli's kingside (AZE, 2510).
The correct way to respond to 19.f5 is gxf5. Yes, it is quite counterintuitive. 19...exf5 prompted another devastating move 20.e6 Nf6 21.Nxf5 +- and it's all over for Black. White won the game in another seven moves.
Kashish - Sadikhov: 1-0
FM Kashish Manoj Jain (2271) seized his opportunity against GM Ulvi Sadikhov (AZE, 2491) when the latter did not want to draw in the queen and bishop endgame.
Since the bishop at h8 has become furniture, Black's best course of choice would be to go for a draw 31...Qh1+ 32.Kg3 Qg1+ 33.Kf3 Qd1+ and so on. However, he capture a wrong pawn 31...Qxc2?? Find out the winning continuation for White.
GM Anton Demchenko (2654) - FM Nikhil Dixit (2331): 0.5-0.5
GM Aleksandar Indjic (SRB, 2620) - IM V Saravanan (2324): 0.5-0.5
WIM Arpita Mukherjee (2281) - GM Muradli Mahammad (AZE, 2510): 1-0
GM Aleksandar Kovacevic (SRB, 2500) - FM Sharan Rao (2274): 0.5-0.5
FM Kashish Manoj Jain (2271) - GM Ulvi Sadikhov (AZE, 2491): 1-0
Saurabh Anand (2260) - IM Raymond Song (TPE, 2485): 0.5-0.5
IM Alan-Safar Ramoutar (TTO, 2480) - Adarsh Tripathi (2247): 0-1
WIM Savitha Shri B (2230) - IM Jurica Srbis (CRO, 2455): 0.5-0.5
IM Prraneeth Vuppala (2447) - Ojas Kulkarni (2226) : 0.5-0.5
WIM Sakshi Chitlange (2216) - IM Neelash Saha (2439): 1-0
IM Sirisa Saric (SRB, 2403) - Joshua A P (2163): 0.5-0.5
IM Harshavardhan G B (2367) - Soham Bhattacharyya (2099): 0.5-0.5
Thrish Karthik (2095) - IM Nikola Nikolovski (MKD, 2365): 0.5-0.5
IM Boroljub Zlatanovic (SRB, 2346) - CM Akshay Borgaonkar (2026): 0.5-0.5
Highlights
A few interesting finishes from Round 1
A total of 263 players including 38 GMs, 68 IMs, 6 WGMs and 13 WIMs are taking part from 38 countries across the world including India. The tournament is being organized by Serbia Chess Federation from 28th June to 7th July 2022 at Novi Sad, Serbia. The nine-round Swiss league tournament has a time control of 90 minutes/40 moves + 15 minutes for whole game, 30 seconds increment from move no.1.
