Hingne holds Reddy; Rajesh escapes to victory in Raisoni Memorial chess

NAGPUR: Unseeded Maharashtra master Shirish Hingne and Chhattigarh's Ashutosh Banerjee hogged the limelight on Day 1 of the 4th GH Raisoni Memorial and LIC All-India Open Fide rating chess tournament which got underway at the Ambedkar college hall, Deekshbhoomi, on Tuesday.
The All India tournament is organized by the Parents Chess Association (PCA) and is being played under the aegis of Nagpur District Chess Association (NDCA) and Maharashtra Chess Association (MCA).Over 300 participants took part in the six-day meet being played in the Swiss League format.
While Hingne held 8th seed Chakravarthi Reddy of to a draw, Banerjee gave second seed international master VAV Rajesh a big scare before going down fighting after a marathon 67-round battle. The only upset of the day was witnessed on the 8th table where Hingne — playing with the black bits — forced the experienced Telangana IM Reddy to split the points after a 37-move draw.
All the other seeded masters, however, sailed smoothly in both the rounds played on Tuesday. Representing LIC top seed Sriram Jha took 45 moves to make light work of the Kings Pawn opening of Arjun Krishnamachari in the second round while third seed FM Akash Thakur defeated Chhattisgarh's Anshul Uppal in 41 moves.
Tamil Nadu's Al Muthaiah made most of his opening advantage with the whites and after just 22 moves outclassed Amit Deshpande on the fourth table.
Earlier, the tournament was inaugurated by Mrunal Naik of the Raisoni Group. Senior divisional manager of LIC Ashwin Kumar Jha shared the dais. Ambedkar College vice-principal Arvind Joshi presided over the opening ceremony. On the occasion all the members of Parents Chess Association and other district officials were present.
RESULTS (round 2)
Arjun Krishnamachari (1) lost to Sriram Jha (2), VAV Rajesh (2) bt Ashutosh Banerjee (1), Anshul Uppal (1) lost to Akash Thakur (2), Al Muthaiah (2) bt Amit Deshpande (1), Abhijit Joshi (1) lost to Akash Pc Iyer (2), Sammed Jaykumar Shete (2) bt Tushar Saraswat (1), Yash Ingolikar (1) lost Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad (2), Chakravarthi Reddy M (1.5) drew with Shirish Hingne (1.5), Ketan Patil (1) lost to SV Srinath Rao (2), Dhananjay (2) bt Mrudul Dehankar (1).