Thejkumar beats Srinath; Thipsay off to winning start

International Master Thejkumar overcame Srinath V of Tamil Nadu in the first round match.
The only Grandmaster in the fray, Maharashtrean Praveen Thipsay M prevailed over Sameer Kulkarni of Karnataka.

However, another State player Stany GA outplayed Priya VSS of Andhra Pradesh on the first day.

IMs Laxman RR, Rathnakaran K, Babu N Sudhakar, Tilak Sharad S, Ramnathan Balasubramaniam and Koshy Varugeese also got off to winning starts.

Results (round I): Laxman RR (ICF, 1) bt Kulkarni Shrikant (Kar,  0); Srinath V (TN, 0) lt to Thejkumar MS (Kar, 1); Rathnakaran K (Southern Railway, 1) bt Chaithanyaa KG (TN, 0); Varma Shabdhik (Kar, 0) lt to Murali Krishnan BT (Southern Railway, 1); Shivananda BS (Kar, 1) bt Gandhi Anish (Mah,  0); Indu Bhushan Bajpai (UP, 0) lt to Meenakshi Subbaraman (IA, 1); Babu N Sudhakar (TN, 1) bt Rakshith R Umesh (Kar, 0); Sabari Giri Vashans (TN, 0) lt to Sanjay N (Kar, 1); Tilak Sharad S (Mah, 1) bt Jayaraj K (Kar, 0); Shalon Joanne Pais (Kar, 0) lt to Saravana Krishnan P (TN, 1); Ramnathan Balasubramaniam (ICF, 1) bt Shah Anila Kishorekumar (Guj, 0); Chrisel Ann Pais (Kar, 0) lt to Deshmukh Anup (Mah, 1); Stany GA (Kar, 1) bt Priya VSS (AP, 0); Nidhin Kumar S (Ker, 0) lt to Syed Anwar Shazuli (ICF, 1); Koshy Varugeese (TN, 1) bt Surya Ram (Kar, 0); Vasishta S (Kar, 0) lt to Shetty Rahul (Mah, 1); Anilkumar OT (Ker, 1) bt Lenita Mathais (Kar, 0); Shubham N Shinde (Mah, 0) lt to Phoobalan P (ICF, 1); Srinivasa Rao M (AP, 1) bt Sharan Rao (Kar, 0); Praveen Thipsay M (Mah, 1) bt Sameer Kulkarni (Kar, 0); Naren N Kumar (Kar, 0.5) drew with Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi (WB, 0.5); Jadhav Purval (Mas, 0) lt to Sharma Dinesh K (LIC, 1); Praveen Kumar C (TN, 1) bt Ninad V Prabhu Khanolkar (Kar, 0); L Prathiba (TN, 0.5) drew with IM Ravi Hegde (0.5).