Sasikiran off to winning start

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran took off with a lucky victory over veteran GM Vitaly Tseshkovsky of Russia in the opening round of the Aeroflot International open chess tournament in Moscow.

The first round of the USD 175,000 event saw some surprises but it turned out to be easy outings for top two seeds -- Etinne Bacrot of France and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine -- in the 'A1' section.

Both Bacrot and Ivanchuk won in identical fashion giving endgame lessons to Russians Dmitry Jakovenko and Alexander Riazentsev respectively.

Third seed and former World champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine was held to a draw by Solak Dragan of Serbia.

Amongst the Indians in 'A1', National champion GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly was quite impressive in holding higher rated GM Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan to a draw with black pieces.

GM Sandipan Chanda also did a similar act against GM Bu Xiangzhi of China.

It turned out to be a mixed first day for the other Indian hopefuls and gaining the most was former Asian Junior girls champion Tania Sachdev who scored over International Master Evgeny Kalegin of Russia.

Tania, who is looking for her final Women Grandmaster norm here, got a pleasant surprise on arrival as she was elevated to the 'A2' from earlier permitted 'B' group in the event.

Apart from Tania, IM norm holder Parimarjan Negi and country's latest Women Grandmaster Eesha Karvade were also added to the higher group wherein normally only players above 2400 ELO rating are allowed to participate.

Eesha and Negi suffered defeats in their Aeroflot debut going down to Oleg Chebotarev of Russia and Josep Manuel Lopez Martinez of Spain respectively.

Also losing his opening encounter was GM norm aspirant S Kidambi who could not hold his nerves against Ashot Nadanian of Armenia while GM Tejas Bakre kicked off with a safe draw with Lev Pevzner of Russia.

In the 'B' group, lone Indian IM Dinesh Kumar Sharma drew his game with Konstantin Kostin of Russia.

Sasikiran played a fine game as black against Tseshkovsky, but the 60-year old proved a tough nut to crack with white pieces against the Caro Kann defence.

Gaining a balanced middle game without much effort, Sasikiran invited complications but found Tseshkovsky at guard and the exchanges of pieces led to a equal middle game. However, the Russian fell under time pressure and eventually lost on time when only a few pieces remained on board.

Ganguly showed his deep opening preparation and gave no leverage to Radjabov who had beaten World's top rated Garry Kasparov a couple of years back during the Linares tournament.

Playing black, Ganguly faced the Ruy Lopez closed variation and attained a level position without much ado.

Radjabov exchanged a couple of minor pieces early but got nothing before splitting the point after 22 moves.

In other important games of the day, former champion Viktor Bologan of Moldova did a class act in cruising past Alexander Ivanov while Alexander Galkin held Armenian Levon Aronian to an easy draw.

Results: Dmitry Jakovenko (Rus) lost to Etienne Bacrot (Fra); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) beat Alexander Riazantsev (Rus); Solak Dragon (SCG) drew with Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr); Vladimir Akopian (Arm) beat Semen Dvoirys (Rus); Alexander Galkin (Rus) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm); Viktor Bologan (Mda) beat Alexander Ivanov (Usa); Konstantin Sakaev (Rus) beat Alexander Lastin (Rus); Teimour Radjabov (Aze) drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly; Vitaly Tsheshkovsky (Rus) lost to Krishnan Sasikiran; Bu Xiangzhi (Chn) drew with Sandipan Chanda 

'A2': Pavel Maletin (Rus) drew with Sergej Dyachkov (Rus); Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (Rus) drew with Ruslan Scherbakov (Rus); Natalia Zhukova (Ukr) drew with Alexander Goloshchapov (Ukr); Lev Pevzner (Rus) drew with Tejas Bakre; Ashot Nadanian (Arm) beat S Kidambi; Oleg Chebotarev (Rus) beat Eesha Karvade; Tania Sachdev beat Evgenij Kalegin (Rus); Josep Manuel Lopez Martinez (Esp) beat Parimarjan Negi.

'B': A Goryachev (Rus) lost to Harmen Jonkman (Ned); Anton Kuzin (Rus) beat Dmitry Petukhov (Rus); Dinesh Kumar Sharma drew with Konstantin Kostin (Rus).