Indians shine in British chess

Indians ruled the roost on the opening day in the under-11 section in the British Chess Congress 2001.

Top seeded Arjun Vishnu Vardha won easily over Smith Robyn (UK) in just 29 moves. Arjun, playing with white pieces, chose the closed variation of Sicilian defence and checkmated Smith in a very convincing manner.

Another Indian, P P Prachura defeated Cornford Mathew of the UK in a one-sided game of 41 moves. Prachura attacked black's queenside very early in the game and subsequently got material up.

Parimarjan Negi, the reigning British under-8 champion, started his campaign with a draw against Sri Lanka's Sirisena Chantal.

Kerala's C M Gaurishankar also won his first round in a closely-fought game against P James. The only setback in this section was Sathya Priya's loss against reigning British under-10 champion Pym Thomas.

In the under-13 section, Sanchit Agarwal of Delhi, playing on top table, managed a draw in 52 moves against Bennet William. Sanchit, playing with black pieces, played qga variation.

More than 12 Grandmasters and equal number of International Masters are participating in this mega event.

UNI