15 year old Shardul holds GM Viorel

The Xth standard student has brightened his chances to earn IM norm with the fine performance.

In another fine show, IM Aditya Udeshi (2376) also earned creditable half point from ninth seed GM Ahmed Adly (2607) of Egypt.

Fourth seed Abhijit Gupta, the highest seed among the Indian contingent, started with a bang by defeating WGM Mary Ann Gomes.

Mary Ann, who recently booked IM title by defending National Premier Women Championship, unfortunately had to compete super GM Abhijit in the inaugural round.

IM Suvrajit Saha of Kolkata and FM Arvindh Chithambaram of Tamil Nadu snatched half points each from GMs SP Sethuraman and MR Venkatesh respectively.

Second seed Anton Korobov started his campaign on a positive note making a short work of Indian IM S Nitin.