Pallavi and Krishna begin badly

AHMEDABAD, DEC. 23. The top two seeds faltered in the very first round of the 14th National children's chess championship (under-7 & 9 for boys and girls) here on Saturday, with Pallavi Roy of West Bengal and C.R.G. Krishna of Andhra Pradesh tasting defeats.

However, the top seed in the boys' section, Kumar Gaurav of Bihar, and under-9 girls, D. Minu (AP), won their games easily to secure one point each.

On the top table, in the under-7 girls' category, unseeded R. Vishala of Tata Nagar playing with the white pieces opened the game with a king-pawn against the top seed Pallavi. In the middle game, Vishala successfully managed to confuse her top- rated opponent and soon gained a commanding position to emerge winner. In the boys' under-7 section, top seed Kumar Gaurav had little difficulty in beating unseeded S. Majumdar in a sicilian defence game. In an even middlegame, white made a horrible blunder with 26.Qh3 and allowed Gaurav to clinch the issue.

In under-9 girls, top-seeded D. Minu (AP), playing with black, crushed her opponent A.S. Larchum (Cro) in a Kings Indian defence in just 28 moves.

In boys' under-9, unseeded S. Mishra of Orissa was lucky enough to encash an error from top-seeded C.R.G. Krishna in an exchange variation of the Caro-Kann defence. In the middlegame, when the position appeared well-balanced, the top seed miscalculated a combination and lost a bishop. It was just a matter of formalities thereafter.

It was a good day for host Gujarat as Dhyani Dave and Sonam Shah (girls under-9), Bhavya Shah (boys under-9), Nihar Thakkar (boys under-7) and Sumona Aggrawal (girls under-7) started with wins.

Important results:

Boys: Under-9: S. Mishra (Ori) 1 bt C.R.G. Krishna (AP); P. Ghosh (WB) 1 bt Amar Jyoti (Ori); S. Chhabra (Raj) lost to B. Aditya (Mah) 1; N. Bhat (Mah) 1 bt S.Y. Pragda (AP); A. Sarkar (WB) lost to V. Guna (TN) 1.

Under-7: S. Majumdar lost to Kumar Gaurav (Bih) 1; P. Neggi (Del) 1 bt P. Raghuram (Mah); Omkar Sanjay (Mah) lost to S. Ravi Teja (AP) 1; A. Balkrishan (Kar) lost to V. Pithkar (Mah) 1; G. Madhukiran (AP) lost to M. Fawazap (Ker) 1.

Girls: Under-9: A.S. Larchum (Cro) lost to D. Minu (AP) 1; I. Ramya Krishna (AP) 1 bt R. Khare (Del); Vishwa Talsania (Guj) lost to Priya Ratnam (Bih) 1; S. Parkhi (Naga) 0.5 drew with M. Manogna (AP) 0.5; Kanchan (Raj) lost to S. Mrunmayee (Mah) 1.

Under-7: Vishala (Tata) 1 bt Pallavi Roy (WB); P.C. Saitti (AP) 1 bt Anusha Ganpat (Kar); Sridevi Shivdas (Ker) lost to P. Priya (TN) 1; C.H. Savitha (TN) 1 bt A.N. Borkar (Mah); Manashi Kulkarni (Mah) lost to V. Bhavna (AP) 1.

- UNI

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