Vaishali, Masoud winners in Rapid Chess at Asian Junior C'ship

Tamil Nadu youngster R Vaishali and Iranian International Master Masoud Mosadeghpur emerged victories as the Asian Junior Open and Girls Chess Championships got off to a rousing start here today.
103 players from 12 different countries are participating in this nine day long prestigious championship, which have three formats of Rapid, Standard and Blitz events.
In the girl's Rapid event, Vaishali won the yellow metal with a perfect score of 9 points while Masoud finished first with 8 points.
Indian Grandmasters Aravindh Chithamabaram and S L Narayanan finished as first runner up and second runner up respectively in open section while Uuriintuya Uurtasaikh of Mongolia won Silver and Bala Kannamma of India finished third in girl's category.

Earlier in a befitting opening ceremony, Asian Chess Federation Deputy President Bharat Singh inaugurated the championship by lighting the lamp and making the customary first move in presence of Jaidev Dutta, General Manager host Hotel Park Plaza and AK Verma, Secretary Delhi Chess Association.
The classical championship to decide Asian Junior Champions will start on Wednesday and the young Indian Grandmasters Aravindh Chithambaram, Karthikeyan Murali and S L Narayanan will spearhead the Indian challenge while R Vaishali got the top billing in Girls section.