Indian Grandmasters Abhijeet Gupta and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi got off to a flier, scoring easy victories in the first round of the 31st Cappelle-La-Grand International chess tournament, here today.
It turned out to be an easy day for Gupta who played a fine game giving little chance to Antoine Favarel of France. The former world junior champion started with the English opening and was happy to play the reverse Benoni with a couple of extra moves.
As the game progressed, Favarel found the going tough despite exchanging a few pieces and in the end the weaknesses on the queen side proved fatal. Abhijeet knocked down one pawn and converted to a winning minor piece endgame that was child's play.
Gujrathi had to work a little harder from the black pieces. Getting a lively position in the middle game against Ramon Mateo of Dominican Republic, the Indian won a couple of pawns but was stretched in the queen and minor piece endgame.
On the flip side from Indian perspective, Grandmaster G N Gopal suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Demre Kerigan of Turkey. Gopal simply blundered from level position and could not make a comeback in the game.
The other Indian Grandmasters in the fray had a field day. Sahaj Grover appeared in a spot of bother out of a Sicilian Najdorf as black against veteran German Grandmaster Nikolai Shalnev but fought back bravely to win a fine endgame in the end.
