PH’s Naori notches early win in Delhi Chess meet

FILIPINO woodpusher Hamed Nouri posted an opening- round victory to share the early lead in the 15th Delhi International Chess Championship being held at the Ludlow Castle Sports Complex Civil Lines in New Delhi, India.

Nouri, the country’s lone representative in the 10- round tournament, outclassed Maralakshikari of India to earn his first point.

Also on top are Grandmasters ( GM) Farrukh Amonatov of Tajikistan; Babu Lalith, Diptayan Ghosh and Murali Karthikeyan of India; Alberto David of Italy; Vitaliy Bernadskiy, Vitaly Sivuk and Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine; Vadim Malakhatko of Belgium; Karen Movsziszian of Armenia; Andrei Deviatkin of Russia; and Adam Horbath and Attila Czebe of Hungary.

Amonatov defeated Mittal Aditya of India, Lalith clobbered Niraula Bhupendra of Nepal, Ghosh outplayed Das Indranil of India, Karthikeyan blasted Afrawal Vantika of India, David nipped Saina Salonik of India, Bernadskiy trounced Arpita Mukherjee of India, Sivuk toppled Santanu Borpatra Gohain of India, Tukhaev thumped Rahman Mallick Masudur of Bangladesh, Malakhatko beat Roy Ankan of India, Movsziszian overpowered Yvk Chakravarthy of India, Deviatkin tripped Vishal Shakti of India, Horbath whipped Bhatt Raj Vinay of India, and Czebe stopped Jay Kundaliya of India.

Nouri will be battling Indian Pratik Mulay in the second round while Amonatov faces Garg Aradhya of India, Lalith faces International Master Maha Lakshmi of India, Ghosh meets FIDE Master Joydeep Dutta of India, and Karthikeyan takes on Jaya Kumaar of India.

The other scheduled matches are David versus Patil Pratik of India, Malakhatko versus Spencer Masango of Zimbabwe, GM Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy of Vietnam versus Shelke Sankarsha of India, and Bernadskiy versus Anish Gandhi of India.

EMIL C. NOGUERA