Maharashtra Open chess: Smooth start for Amonatov, Lalith Babu

Grandmaster Farrukh Amonatov of Tajikistan started his campaign in the inaugural Maharashtra International Open GM chess tournament with a confident win over India's Anish Gandhi on Tuesday.

Fresh from a victory in the KIIT GM Open, the Tajik GM, the top seed, showed his class playing with white pieces in a Sicilian game against Gandhi. He won in 35 moves in a Sicilian Variation game.

Second-seeded M R Lalith Babu, the highest rated Indian in the fray, encountered stiff resistance from Joshua A P in a Queen's Gambit Declined game before winning in 44 moves, while the fourth seed Alexei Federov got the better of Tejaswani Sagar after 43 moves.

Fifth seed Deep Sengupta of India posted a win over Atul Dahale in 38 moves.

Important results:

Round 1: GM Farrukh Amonatov (1) beat Anish Gandhi (0); WIM Tejaswini Sagar (0) lost to GM Alexei Federov (1); GM Deep Sengupta (1) beat Atul Dahale (0); Aanjaneya Phatak (0) lost to GM V Karthik (1); GM Mikhail Nikitenko (1) beat C M Manisha Kadam (0); GM M R Lalith Baby (1) beat Joshua AP (0).