Experience was no match for youth even as Delhi children sizzled in the first round of the Parsvnath Commonwealth Chess Championship which got underway here on Monday.

 On a day when two rounds were scheduled, the first round witnessed many major upsets, a rarity in Swiss League events, especially considering the fact that the event has attracted 282 entries and the higher seeds are more or less assured of lower-ranked opponents in the first few rounds.

The casualties were former members of the Indian team that competed in Chess Olympiads. Nine-year-old Vaibhav Suri defeated IM D P Singh, 15-year-old Dhara Gupta accounted for IM Anup Deshmukh while Akash Iyer from Chennai downed IM Ravi Hegde. The upset wins incidentally were the biggest career wins for the trio.
GM Neelotpal Das, seeded ninth, was held to a draw by D S Negi and eighth seeded IM G Rohit also had to split point with Rucha Pujari.

The second round which started late in the evening also gave an indication that the top seeds have to slog it out for every draw and victory. Top seed Surya Shekhar Ganguly started his campaign in style with two victories albeit he had to overcome the resistance of Nassir Wajih in the second round. 

An ending with two rooks each did conjure up visions of a draw but Wajih missed way and Ganguly pressed on for 49 moves to get the much-needed victory.  Local lad and the star attraction of the event, Parimarjan Negi, also won both his games.

Top-ranked woman Dronvalli Harika also notched two victories. In fact, the Indian women collectively had a good time with Kiran Monisha Mohanty holding a much higher rated GM Deepan Chakravarthy and former World under-18 champion WGM Aarthie, reigning Women's champion Tania Sachdev also notching two victories.

Second seed Gawain Jones of  England was held to a draw by youngster Praveen Kumar after 28 moves of a Queen's Gambit game. The English GM opted for a waiting second move but Praveen played perfectly to win a pawn in the middle-game to get a good position.

Important results: Second round: (Indians unless stated): Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2585, 2) bt Nassir Wajih (2285,1); Praveen Kumar (2279, 1.5) drew Gawain Jones (Eng, 2567, 1.5); Abhijit Kunte ( 2547,1.5) drew  Matta Vinay Kumar (2281,1.5); Laisram Imocha (2272) lt to Parimarjan Negi (2514, 2); Abdullah Al-Rakib (Ban, 2506, 2) bt Mary Ann Gomes (2262, 1); Kiran Monisha Mohanty (2263,1.5) drew Deepan Chakravarthy (2492,1.5); Dibyendu Barua (2491,1.5) drew Swapnil Dhopade (2261,1.5); Saravana Krishna (2261,1) lt to Reefat Bin Sattar (Ban; 2462,2);  Harika Dronavalli (2480, 2) bt R Premnath (2254, 1).

First round: Ganguly bt Girish Kaushik; Gawain Jones bt Vivek Bharti; Himal Gusain lt to A Kunte; Parimarjan Negi bt Shardul Gagare; Abhilash Reddly lt to Abdulla Al Rakib; Deepan Chakravarthy bt Atul Dahale; Lim Kian Hwa lt to Dibyendu Barua; Divyasri lt to Dronavalli Harika; Praveen Thipsay bt Anand Reddy; Melissa Greef lt to Abhijit Gupta; DV Prasad bt RS Rawat; Thej Kumar bt Sumant Subramaniam; Oliver Shannon lt to Esha Karavade; Shrishti Shetty lt to Swati Ghate; Lee Cecil lt to Tania Sachdev.