National Challengers Round 1: 14-year-old holds GM Sriram Jha

by Gopakumar Sudhakaran - 14/08/2017

The Open National Challengers 2017 has got underway in Ahmedabad from 13th of August. All the grandmasters had a smooth outing in the first round except for one - GM Sriram Jha. The grandmaster from Delhi was held to a draw by 14-year-old Mounika Akshaya. Few more higher rated players faced the heat and were made to split the points. The battles are heating up and ChessBase India brings you the action from Karnavati club.

Guntur based fourteen year old Bommini Mounika Akshaya held former champion and Grandmaster Sriram Jha of LIC in the opening round of the National Challengers Chess Championship which got off to a rousing start at Karnavati Club, Ahmedabad on Sunday.

Playing white side of Slav defence game, Jha tried hard to take full point from the first round outing, but found Mounika’s defence a tough nut to crack. He was forced to split the point after a marathon game that lasted more than five hours and 100 moves.

White has the space, but no breakthrough!

In other surprising result of the day, Kartavya Anadkat brought cheers to the local crowd on Sunday afternoon as he beat seasoned International Master Dinesh Kumar Sharma in 37 moves. Air India’s Satyapragyan and Tamilnadu’s Niranjan Navalgund split points against lower rated Chaitanya Sairam Mogili of Telangana and Khalid Amin of Jammu and Kashmir respectively. Apart from these surprising results, all seeded players started their tournament campaign with expected victories in the opening round.

Results of round 1

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	130		Mohith R	1832	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2579	1
2	2	GM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan	2564	0	1 - 0	0		Neelabh Jyoti Borthakur	1827	131
3	132		Trivedi Karan R	1827	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2529	3
4	4	GM	Narayanan Srinath	2524	0	1 - 0	0		Panda Sambit	1825	133
5	134		Dave Sneh	1823	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2516	5
6	6	GM	Himanshu Sharma	2514	0	1 - 0	0		Rahul Kumar	1817	135
7	136		Aryan	1816	0	0 - 1	0	GM	Kunte Abhijit	2505	7
8	8	GM	Debashis Das	2493	0	1 - 0	0		Harsh Himanshu	1811	137
9	138		Vikee Vishal	1806	0	0 - 1	0	IM	Thejkumar M. S.	2481	9
10	10	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2466	0	1 - 0	0		Lalzawmliana	1801	139

Rank after Round 1

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	1	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.		IND	2579	TN	1,0	0,0	0,0	0,0	0,00	1,0
	2	GM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan		IND	2564	KER	1,0	0,0	0,0	0,0	0,00	1,0
	3	GM	Lalith Babu M R		IND	2529	PSPB	1,0	0,0	0,0	0,0	0,00	1,0
	4	GM	Narayanan Srinath		IND	2524	AI	1,0	0,0	0,0	0,0	0,00	1,0
	5	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade		IND	2516	RSPB	1,0	0,0	0,0	0,0	0,00	1,0
	6	GM	Himanshu Sharma		IND	2514	RSPB	1,0	0,0	0,0	0,0	0,00	1,0
	7	GM	Kunte Abhijit		IND	2505	PSPB	1,0	0,0	0,0	0,0	0,00	1,0
	8	GM	Debashis Das		IND	2493	ODI	1,0	0,0	0,0	0,0	0,00	1,0
	9	IM	Thejkumar M. S.		IND	2481	RSPB	1,0	0,0	0,0	0,0	0,00	1,0
	10	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		IND	2466	RSPB	1,0	0,0	0,0	0,0	0,00	1,0

Round 2 on 2017/08/14 at 0930 hrs

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2579	1		1		Baivab Mishra	2074	72
2	74		Bhatt Jalpan	2069	1		1	GM	Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan	2564	2
3	3	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2529	1		1		Neelash Saha	2062	75
4	76		Manush Shah	2060	1		1	GM	Narayanan Srinath	2524	4
5	5	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2516	1		1		Bhambure Shantanu	2052	77
6	78		Deepthamsh Reddy. M	2052	1		1	GM	Himanshu Sharma	2514	6
7	7	GM	Kunte Abhijit	2505	1		1	WFM	Tarini Goyal	2034	79
8	80		Sinha Santosh Kumar	2034	1		1	GM	Debashis Das	2493	8
9	9	IM	Thejkumar M. S.	2481	1		1		Tarun V Kanth	2031	81
10	82		Samant Aditya S	2030	1		1	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2466	10