Unheralded 12-year-old Sankalp Gupta of Nagpur, Maharashtra created a major flutter in the very first round of the 14th Delhi Open as he beat Italian Grandmaster David Alberto. The game was flowing along normal lines until Alberto lost a pawn, slipped into time-pressure as his clock ticked down, and eventually conceded defeat to the Maharashtra youngster.
Vinayak Kulkarni of Karnataka started the tournament on a positive note as he held Grandmaster Artur Gabrielian of Russia. Adhithya S of Tamil Nadu also held Hungarian Grandmaster Attila Czebe as Indians proved a solid match to the foreign grandmasters.
There were numerous instances of lower rated Indian youngsters holding their higher rated counterparts Gujarat’s Manush Shah, Karnataka’s Ojas Kulkarni held International Masters Shyaamnikhil P. and S. Nitin of Tamil Nadu respectively.
A total number of 200 players from 13 countries, which include 21 Grandmasters, 21 International Masters are taking part in the premier section of this 35 lakh prize money event while in the Category ‘B’ for the players below 1999 international rating which is underway simultaneously with the premier section attracted a total number of 602 players. The third category for the players below 1599 elo rating will start on Wednesday and this section already crossed the barrier 800 and entries are pouring day by day.
Earlier, in the opening ceremony, Mrs. Rashmi Singh, Patron Delhi Chess Association and Group Captain J Rajendra VSM, Chief Administrative Officer Air Force Station New Delhi formally inaugurated the tournament by making the customary first move in presence of Shri. Bharat Singh, CEO All India Chess Federation, Shri. Atul Gupta, Shri. Kapil Saxena, Joint Secretaries of All India Chess Federation, Shri. Dhiraj Raghuvanshi, President Chess Association Uttaranchal, Shri. AK Verma, Secretary Delhi Chess Association and Delhi’s Grandmaster Vaibhav Suri.
In the opening ceremony, Shri. Bharat Singh made a surprise move by announcing the next edition of this event with a record prize fund of Rs. 51 lakh (around 70 000 euro) in the year 2017.
Learn more about the 14th Delhi Open / Watch the games live!
Result Highlights of Round 1
Anilkumar O T lost to GM Grachev Boris of Russia
GM Ivan Popov of Russia lost to Subhayan Kundu
Sankalp Gupta beat GM Alberto David of Italy
GM Anton Demchenko of Russia beat Choudhary Jitendra Kumar
Audi Ameya lost to GM Yuri Solodovnichenko of Ukraine
GM Vitaly Sivuk of Ukraine beat Suvradeepta Das
Pardeep Arora lost to GM Mikhail Mozharov of Russia
GM Vladimir Belous of Russia beat Sharang Sanjeev Kapoor
Chandreyee Hajra lost to GM Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine
GM Lalith Babu MR beat Vantika Agrawal
Sohan Phadke lost to Vaibhav Suri
Vitaliy Bernadskiy of Ukraine beat Kautil Kakumanu
Vinayak Kulkarni .5 drew with GM Artur Gabrielian of Russia .5
GM Ernst Sipke of Netherlands beat Gukesh D
Anish Gandhi lost to GM Esen Baris of Turkey
Standings after Round 1
| Rk. | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | |
| 1 | GM | Grachev Boris | RUS | 2652 | 1.0 |
| GM | Popov Ivan | RUS | 2650 | 1.0 | |
| GM | Demchenko Anton | RUS | 2596 | 1.0 | |
| GM | Solodovnichenko Yuri | UKR | 2581 | 1.0 | |
| GM | Sivuk Vitaly | UKR | 2566 | 1.0 | |
| GM | Mozharov Mikhail | RUS | 2559 | 1.0 | |
| GM | Belous Vladimir | RUS | 2557 | 1.0 | |
| GM | Tukhaev Adam | UKR | 2556 | 1.0 | |
| GM | Lalith Babu M R | IND | 2553 | 1.0 | |
| GM | Vaibhav Suri | IND | 2552 | 1.0 | |
| GM | Bernadskiy Vitaliy | UKR | 2546 | 1.0 | |
| GM | Ernst Sipke | NED | 2536 | 1.0 | |
| GM | Esen Baris | TUR | 2530 | 1.0 | |
| GM | Neverov Valeriy | UKR | 2506 | 1.0 | |
| GM | Dzhumaev Marat | UZB | 2495 | 1.0 | |
| GM | Nguyen Duc Hoa | VIE | 2494 | 1.0 | |
| IM | Narayanan Srinath | IND | 2478 | 1.0 | |
| IM | Rathnakaran K. | IND | 2457 | 1.0 | |
| IM | Vignesh N R | IND | 2448 | 1.0 | |
| FM | K. Praneeth Surya | IND | 2429 | 1.0 | |
| GM | Sriram Jha | IND | 2416 | 1.0 | |
| IM | Ramnath Bhuvanesh.R | IND | 2414 | 1.0 | |
| IM | Das Sayantan | IND | 2411 | 1.0 | |
| IM | Visakh N R | IND | 2388 | 1.0 | |
| IM | Krishna C R G | IND | 2387 | 1.0 | |
| IM | Himanshu Sharma | IND | 2385 | 1.0 | |
| IM | Ravi Teja S. | IND | 2385 | 1.0 | |
| Harsha Bharathakoti | IND | 2362 | 1.0 | ||
| IM | Palit Somak | IND | 2357 | 1.0 | |
| Kulkarni Rakesh | IND | 2349 | 1.0 | ||
| IM | Rajesh V A V | IND | 2338 | 1.0 | |
| FM | Gajwa Ankit | IND | 2335 | 1.0 | |
| Gusain Himal | IND | 2335 | 1.0 | ||
| Aradhya Garg | IND | 2316 | 1.0 | ||
| Sammed Jaykumar Shete | IND | 2307 | 1.0 | ||
| IM | Sangma Rahul | IND | 2303 | 1.0 | |
| Sahoo Utkal Ranjan | IND | 2297 | 1.0 | ||
| FM | Mehar Chinna Reddy C.H. | IND | 2293 | 1.0 | |
| FM | Mohammad Fahad Rahman | BAN | 2278 | 1.0 | |
| Iniyan P | IND | 2275 | 1.0 | ||
| Patil Pratik | IND | 2270 | 1.0 | ||
| FM | Rajdeep Sarkar | IND | 2267 | 1.0 | |
| IM | Murali Krishnan B T | IND | 2260 | 1.0 | |
| Deshpande Aniruddha | IND | 2257 | 1.0 | ||
| Lokesh N. | IND | 2255 | 1.0 | ||
| FM | Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari | IND | 2252 | 1.0 | |
| Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad | IND | 2248 | 1.0 | ||
| Vijay Keerthi K. | IND | 2248 | 1.0 | ||
| IM | Krishna Teja N | IND | 2246 | 1.0 | |
| Hemant Sharma (del) | IND | 2242 | 1.0 | ||
| Debarshi Mukherjee | IND | 2233 | 1.0 | ||
| Shailesh Dravid | IND | 2230 | 1.0 | ||
| FM | Nihal Sarin | IND | 2217 | 1.0 | |
| Ram S. Krishnan | IND | 2212 | 1.0 | ||
| AGM | Lakshmi Narayanan M V | IND | 2205 | 1.0 | |
| Hirthickkesh Pr | IND | 2187 | 1.0 | ||
| IM | Chakravarthi Reddy M | IND | 2176 | 1.0 | |
| FM | Praggnanandhaa R | IND | 2174 | 1.0 | |
| Singh S. Vikramjit | IND | 2155 | 1.0 | ||
| Snehal Bhosale | IND | 2155 | 1.0 | ||
| Tiwari Arjun | IND | 2125 | 1.0 | ||
| Bhambure Shantanu | IND | 2120 | 1.0 | ||
| Jain Naveen | IND | 2113 | 1.0 | ||
| Joshi Govind Ballabh | IND | 2113 | 1.0 | ||
| WIM | Nandhidhaa Pv | IND | 2111 | 1.0 | |
| Arjun Kalyan | IND | 2107 | 1.0 | ||
| Deepak Katiyar | IND | 2107 | 1.0 | ||
| CM | Rathanvel V S | IND | 2099 | 1.0 | |
| Nishant Malhotra | IND | 2099 | 1.0 | ||
| Saurabh Anand | IND | 2097 | 1.0 | ||
| Dahale Atul | IND | 2088 | 1.0 | ||
| Rahul Srivatshav P | IND | 2086 | 1.0 | ||
| Sankalp Gupta | IND | 2068 | 1.0 | ||
| Ovezdurdiyeva Jemal | TKM | 1998 | 1.0 | ||
| CM | Aditya Mittal | IND | 1960 | 1.0 | |
| Elancheralathan P | IND | 1876 | 1.0 | ||
| Bhanot Stuti | IND | 1767 | 1.0 | ||
| Dushyant Sharma | IND | 1732 | 1.0 | ||
| 79 | GM | Gabrielian Artur | RUS | 2545 | 0.5 |
| GM | Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy | VIE | 2489 | 0.5 | |
| GM | Czebe Attila | HUN | 2466 | 0.5 | |
| IM | Das Arghyadip | IND | 2463 | 0.5 | |
| IM | Shyaamnikhil P | IND | 2428 | 0.5 | |
| IM | Akash G | IND | 2408 | 0.5 | |
| IM | Nitin S. | IND | 2400 | 0.5 | |
| FM | Thakur Akash | IND | 2341 | 0.5 | |
| Pradeep Kumar R A | IND | 2302 | 0.5 | ||
| WIM | Ivana Maria Furtado | IND | 2277 | 0.5 | |
| CM | Prince Bajaj | IND | 2268 | 0.5 | |
| Srijit Paul | IND | 2259 | 0.5 | ||
| Erigaisi Arjun | IND | 2238 | 0.5 | ||
| Navalgund Niranjan | IND | 2223 | 0.5 | ||
| WIM | Michelle Catherina P | IND | 2216 | 0.5 | |
| Harikrishnan.A.Ra | IND | 2172 | 0.5 | ||
| FM | Matta Vinay Kumar | IND | 2163 | 0.5 | |
| Debashish Dutta | IND | 2111 | 0.5 | ||
| CM | Sadhwani Raunak | IND | 2104 | 0.5 | |
| WFM | Srija Seshadri | IND | 2092 | 0.5 | |
| Kulkarni Vinayak | IND | 2043 | 0.5 | ||
| Nayak Rajesh | IND | 2023 | 0.5 | ||
| Adhithya S | IND | 2018 | 0.5 | ||
| Didwania Vishal | IND | 2014 | 0.5 | ||
| Manush Shah | IND | 2003 | 0.5 | ||
| Negi Virender Singh | IND | 2000 | 0.5 | ||
| Ojas Kulkarni | IND | 2000 | 0.5 | ||
| Alahakoon Isuru | SRI | 1979 | 0.5 | ||
| Aditya Basu | IND | 1959 | 0.5 | ||
| WFM | Arpita Mukherjee | IND | 1934 | 0.5 | |
| WCM | Salonika Saina | IND | 1926 | 0.5 | |
| Srikanth K. | IND | 1918 | 0.5 | ||
| Barath Kalyan M | IND | 1903 | 0.5 | ||
| Joshi Abhijeet | IND | 1895 | 0.5 | ||
| Sahil Tickoo | IND | 1889 | 0.5 | ||
| CM | Mendonca Leon Luke | IND | 1859 | 0.5 | |
| Vijay Anand M. | IND | 1858 | 0.5 | ||
| Anant Prabhudesai | IND | 1818 | 0.5 | ||
| Subba Raju S. | IND | 1789 | 0.5 | ||
| Jadhav Vaibhavi | IND | 1676 | 0.5 | ||
| 119 | GM | David Alberto | ITA | 2597 | 0.0 |
| IM | Kathmale Sameer | IND | 2306 | 0.0 | |
| Shreyansh Daklia | IND | 2212 | 0.0 | ||
| Santu Mondal | IND | 2195 | 0.0 | ||
| Shrutarshi Ray | IND | 2103 | 0.0 | ||
| Koustav Chatterjee | IND | 2097 | 0.0 | ||
| Anilkumar O.T. | IND | 2070 | 0.0 | ||
| Subhayan Kundu | IND | 2069 | 0.0 | ||
| Choudhary Jitendra Kumar | IND | 2066 | 0.0 | ||
| Audi Ameya | IND | 2061 | 0.0 | ||
| Suvradeepta Das | IND | 2060 | 0.0 | ||
| Pardeep Arora | IND | 2054 | 0.0 | ||
| CM | Sharang Sanjeev Kapoor | IND | 2053 | 0.0 | |
| WCM | Chandreyee Hajra | IND | 2050 | 0.0 | |
| Vantika Agrawal | IND | 2048 | 0.0 | ||
| Phadke Sohan | IND | 2045 | 0.0 | ||
| Kakumanu Kautil | IND | 2044 | 0.0 | ||
| CM | Gukesh D | IND | 2041 | 0.0 | |
| Nath Rupankar | IND | 2038 | 0.0 | ||
| Gandhi Anish | IND | 2037 | 0.0 | ||
| Aansh Gupta | IND | 2033 | 0.0 | ||
| Kumar Gaurav | IND | 2030 | 0.0 | ||
| Sumit Grover | IND | 2028 | 0.0 | ||
| Bala Kannamma P | IND | 2020 | 0.0 | ||
| Pradip Tiwari | IND | 2013 | 0.0 | ||
| Lakshmi Sandeep Naidu V | IND | 2011 | 0.0 | ||
| Sanjeet Manohar | IND | 2008 | 0.0 | ||
| WIM | Parnali S Dharia | IND | 2002 | 0.0 | |
| Cholleti Sahajasri | IND | 2002 | 0.0 | ||
| Sa Kannan | IND | 2002 | 0.0 | ||
| Ritam Nag | IND | 2000 | 0.0 | ||
| Darpan Inani | IND | 1995 | 0.0 | ||
| Harshita Guddanti | IND | 1994 | 0.0 | ||
| Harshavardhan G B | IND | 1993 | 0.0 | ||
| FM | Tiwari Ashwani | IND | 1992 | 0.0 | |
| Gurung Rakesh | IND | 1981 | 0.0 | ||
| Supriya Joshi | IND | 1981 | 0.0 | ||
| Raahul V S | IND | 1975 | 0.0 | ||
| Gavi Siddayya | IND | 1971 | 0.0 | ||
| Naveen S Hegde | IND | 1966 | 0.0 | ||
| Madhurima Shekhar | IND | 1963 | 0.0 | ||
| Priyanka K | IND | 1961 | 0.0 | ||
| Arjun Adappa | IND | 1960 | 0.0 | ||
| Purushothaman T | IND | 1955 | 0.0 | ||
| Balkishan A. | IND | 1947 | 0.0 | ||
| Ganguly Ritabroto | IND | 1946 | 0.0 | ||
| Vardan Nagpal | IND | 1930 | 0.0 | ||
| WCM | Isha Sharma | IND | 1927 | 0.0 | |
| Mulay Pratik | IND | 1926 | 0.0 | ||
| Kunal Kakumanu | IND | 1924 | 0.0 | ||
| Shweta Gole | IND | 1915 | 0.0 | ||
| FM | Shrestha Sujendra Prasad | NEP | 1913 | 0.0 | |
| Roop Saurav | IND | 1911 | 0.0 | ||
| WFM | Tarini Goyal | IND | 1908 | 0.0 | |
| Kavinda Akila | SRI | 1908 | 0.0 | ||
| IM | Wazeer Ahmad Khan | IND | 1907 | 0.0 | |
| Ashutosh Kumar | IND | 1907 | 0.0 | ||
| Doshi Moksh Amitbhai | IND | 1899 | 0.0 | ||
| Yalkanova Maya | TKM | 1896 | 0.0 | ||
| WCM | Sapale Saloni | IND | 1892 | 0.0 | |
| CM | Raja Rithvik R | IND | 1887 | 0.0 | |
| Shuban Saha | IND | 1885 | 0.0 | ||
| Sharma Manoj | IND | 1881 | 0.0 | ||
| Joy Antony | IND | 1872 | 0.0 | ||
| Tarun V Kanth | IND | 1871 | 0.0 | ||
| Negi D.S. | IND | 1869 | 0.0 | ||
| Ambarish Sharma | IND | 1861 | 0.0 | ||
| Mishra Anwesha | IND | 1855 | 0.0 | ||
| Vakil Akhtara | IND | 1853 | 0.0 | ||
| Devansh Ratti | IND | 1846 | 0.0 | ||
| Panesar Vedant | IND | 1842 | 0.0 | ||
| Deepak Rai | IND | 1829 | 0.0 | ||
| Saksham Rautela | IND | 1826 | 0.0 | ||
| Diwan Rajesh | IND | 1820 | 0.0 | ||
| Rajesh Kumar Nath | IND | 1806 | 0.0 | ||
| Prithu Gupta | IND | 1803 | 0.0 | ||
| Prasant N Nayagam | IND | 1747 | 0.0 | ||
| Dave Sneh | IND | 1739 | 0.0 | ||
| Sanjit Dutta | IND | 1738 | 0.0 | ||
| Chaudhary Sushil | NEP | 1722 | 0.0 | ||
| Archi Agrawal | IND | 1633 | 0.0 | ||
| CM | Nikhil Magizhnan | IND | 1601 | 0.0 | |
