Indians impress on opening day of Goodricke chess

Double GM norm holder G B Prakash started off in style, upsetting fourth seeded Polish GM Tomas Markowski, while S Meenakshi stunned WGM Joanna Dworakowska on a relatively good opening round for the Indians in the Goodricke International Open chess tournament in Calcutta on Tuesday.

Prakash won a piece in the 15th move and then displayed admirable technique to put it across his higher ranked opponent, while Meenakshi played the Leningrad variation of the Dutch Defence against his Polish rival.

Dworakwska sacrificed a piece for a kingside attack, but the the move turned out to be a blunder as the Indian gave up the exchange to put off the attack and finally won the game.

IM and local boy Surya Sekhar Ganguly also began well holding second seed Kazakhstan GM Evgeny Vladimirov to a draw in a Scotch opening.

Ganguly held the advantage in the opening, but weakened his position by allowing his rival a two-Bishop advantage in the end game.

However, the time pressure told on Vladimirov, who played badly and Ganguly escaped with a draw.

In-form IM P Harikrishna, looking for his final GM norm, shared point with IM Nelson Mriaono of Philipines in 25 moves in an irregular version of the Sicilian defence.

There were further good news for the Indian camp as IM Neelotpal Das finished with a 12-move draw with GM Dimitri Komarov of Ukaraine in the exchange version of the French opening, while Saheli Dhar Barua upset Hungarian GM Oleg Boricsev with the black pieces.