Calcutta: It was a day of upsets in the Tata 50th National Premier Chess Championship, which got underway at the Khudiram Anushilan Kendra on Monday.
The 13-year-old Aravindh Chithambaram, who is also the youngest participant, stunned the experienced GM Dibyendu Barua in 27 moves after the latter blundered to allow a sharp attack in a French Winawer. The meet, earlier known as National A, is being held here after a gap of 36 years and is organised by Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy.
In another upset, national women's champion WGM Mary Ann Gomes won on time against second seed, S. P. Sethuraman in a complicated position that arose from the Sicilian Najdorf move.
Top seed GM B Adhiban was held to a draw by IM Swayams Mishra, who held the upper hand for most part of the game. Swayams was forced to draw by repetition when Abhiban neutralised his opponent's advantage.
GMs Lalith Babu, Deepan Chakravarthy, Abhijit Kunte, S Arun Prasad and Praveen Thipsay, too, were held by their lesser ranked opponents.
Overall, 15 GMs and 11 IMs are vying for the top honours in this 13-round Swiss league with the final round to be held on October 14.
The All India Chess Federation will select top players for the composition of Indian men's team for various international meets in 2013 from this championship.
However, with 2013 not being the Chess Olympiad year, numerous players including GMs Surya Sekhar Ganguly, K. Sasikiran, P. Harikrishna, Parimarjan Negi and defending champion Abhijit Gupta have given the meet a miss.
