Nagpur: Rudranil Karmakar of West Bengal surprised Andhra Pradesh’s third seed Dharmik Panchakatla to cause the first major upset on the opening day of the U-7 National Chess Championships, which began at the GH Raisoni Institute of Engineering and Technology hall, Shraddha Park, Wadi-Hingna Link Road, on Tuesday.After losing the opening tie against unrated Rudranil, Dharmik was held to a draw by Tamil Nadu’s Umar Abdul Aziz in the second round, while all the other seeded players won their respective contests to garner full points.In the second round of the Open group, top seed Vislavath Lavik outclassed Aveer Shah, while girls’ seed No. 1 Udhriti Bhattacharya defeated Ishanvi Rajbongshi to share the lead.Earlier, the nine-round national championship being held in Nagpur after a gap of 19 years was inaugurated by Women’s World Cup champion and city’s third Grandmaster Divya Deshmukh. After making the opening move to inaugurate the championship, Divya shared her experience of playing age-category national tournaments. After the opening ceremony, Divya hogged the limelight as parents and young prodigies were seen taking selfies with the World Junior No. 1 in the girls section.On the occasion, Parineeta Fuke, Vivek Kapur, vice chancellor of GH Raisoni Skill Tech University, AK Verma, the chief administrative officer of All India Chess Federation, Girish Vyas, Debashish Barua, Niranjan Godbole and Bhushan Shriwas shared the dais.Results (Round 2)Open: Vislavath Lavik (2) bt Aveer Shah (1); Ayaansh Fuller (1) lost to Sathwik Bhat (2); Badana Duvanth (1) lost to Shivansh Basu (2); Aksh Shrivastava (2) bt Daksh Kathrani (1); Bejugam Gupta (1) lost to Rudra Pratap (2); Daniel Lakra (1) lost to Ivaan Dubey (2); Joshua Katarapu (2) bt Devaditya Jain (1); Akshath Chowhan (2) bt Devvishwar R (1); Pugazh Vinoth (1) lost to Dhruv Ponnoth (2); Vivaan Kadam (2) bt Divyansh Pruthi (1);Girls: Udhriti Bhattacharya (2) bt Ishanvi Rajbongshi (1); Tanishqa Jain (1) lost to Aarini Lahoty (2); Aaditri Majumdar (2) bt Jaahnavi Manohar (1); Mugdha Kelkar (1) lost to Shazwa Shaik (2) ; Navya R (2) bt Niyara Reddy (1); Pakhi Patel (1) lost to Aaradhya Kommery (2); Dia Baisnab (2) bt Parjanyaa Borah (1); Pranave Sri (1) lost to Liyaa Krishnan (2); Rayanika Shivaram (2) bt Prajakta Dhar (1); Prisha Shikeria (2) bt Aashvi VA (1).
