National champion Gupta starts with a win in Delhi Open chess tourney
National champion Abhijeet Gupta made a bright start along with other top players, securing easy wins in the opening round of the 18th Delhi International Open Grand Masters chess tournament which got underway here on Thursday.
Farrukh Amonatov of Tajikistan, the highest rated player at 2631 in the 10-round tournament, defeated India's Anish Gandhi in 47 moves. Russia's Pavel Ponkratov (2622) started with a win over Manish Kumar of India.
There were also victories for Indian GMs Karthikeyan Murali, Gupta and Sahaj Grover among others.
Murali and Gupta are seeded third and fifth respectively.
Gupta, five-time Commonwealth champion and a former champion here, got the better of Thrish Karthikm, while Murali put it across compatriot Vinayak Kulkarni.
Delhi's seasoned player G B Joshi came up with an inspired effort to beat Grand Master Harsha Bharthakoti.
Grand Master Yakobboev Noddirbek of Uzbekistan was held to a draw by S Dhananjay.
The tournament offers a total prize money of Rs 1.11 .