JOIN USThe 13-year old International-Master-in-waiting, Nihal Sarin, stole the thunder by winning six games to emerge joint-leader on the opening day of the ChessMine Rapid and Blitz All-India Open Chess Tournament here on Saturday.
On a day when most of the top seeds struggled, Grandmaster GN Gopal was the only one who remained unscathed. Gopal, Nihal and local lad Girish Kaushik share the lead with six points apiece at the end of the opening day of the Rs. 4.5 lakh prize money tournament.
The Kerala-based Nihal scalped Grandmaster RR Laxman in the third round and Deepan Chakkravarthy in the sixth round.
Nihal is the youngest Indian in history to score a Grandmaster norm and is two norms away from becoming the world’s youngest Grandmaster.
Girish Kaushik also showed fine form to outwit Grandmaster Deep Sengupta, among others. The real test for Gopal will begin from the sixth round onwards as till now the Grandmaster has faced only opponents ranked lower than him.
The star attraction, top seed Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi, started the day on a positive note but could not maintain the same momentum.
Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta, National rapid champion Laxman, GM Sahaj Grover and GM Pravin Thipsay all find themselves in a similar spot on 4.5 points each and are in a must- win situation in the remaining games for a podium finish.