The futility of downgrading the status of the Amity University National Challengers chess championship to ‘non-rated’ remained the talking point even as some of the top players were stretched in the opening round here on Saturday.
The All India Chess Federation (AICF) CEO Bharat Singh Chauhan graciously admitted that it was a move that had not served the purpose.
“There is nothing wrong with experimenting, but the AICF will surely revise the decision. The fact that the number of Grandmasters participating is less than what we saw last year proves that the purpose was not achieved,” he said.
In fact, Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury withdrew late and brought down the number of participating GMs down to just eight.
GM Abhijit Kunte wondered who stood to benefit from this move. “Can the AICF identify those GMs who offered to play this event should it be made unrated?
“When rating points are not at stake, the intensity is clearly not the same. But we players have no choice but to play,” said Kunte.
Second seed S. L. Narayanan lost the plot under time pressure and needed 72 moves, spread over four and a half hours, to overcome Nagaland’s Melesayi Dawhuo.
Leading results:
First round: Madhab Sarma lost to Aravindh Chithambaram; S.L. Narayanan bt Melesayi Dawhuo; Wazeer Ahmad lost to Vishnu Prasanna; Abhijit Kunte bt Cheniram Pegu; Naveen Bansal lost to Shardul Gagare; N. Srinath bt Utsad Chatterjee; Naitik Mehta lost to Tejas Bakre; Himal Gusain bt Saurav Roop.
V. Rajith lost to Sriram Jha; Surya Praneeth bt Himanshu Harsh; Rohit Gurung drew with G. Akash; S. Nitin bt Vatsal Singhania; Leth Mithawala lost to R. R. Laxman; S. Ravi Teja bt Ganesh Tajane; Akshit Kumar lost to Abhishek Kelkar.
