Press Trust of India
Gibraltar, Jan 27: Viswanathan Anand made a disappointing start to his campaign at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival here Wednesday after he was held to a draw by International Master Szidonia Lazarne Vajda of Hungary in the opening round of the masters section. The draw came after 45 moves after both players failed to create an opening.
However, a draw was an upset result against Anand, as he was the higher-ranked opponent in the contest. Playing in a Swiss open for the first time in 23 years, Anand failed to get into the groove and the Hungarian lady matched him move for move.
Orissa’s Padmini Rout however, started her campaign on a fine note defeating Kimia Moradi of Norway quite easily. This is an important tournament for Padmini as she has the chance of obtaining her second Grandmaster norm with a good show.
The day produced its usual share of upsets as Anand’s former second Surya Shekhar Ganguly also had to split points with Matthias Bach of Germany after failing to locate a simple opening on the 22nd move.
On the brighter side from Indian perspective, fourth seed and former world junior champion P Harikrishna played a flawless game to outwit Alan Tate of Scotland.
The other higher ranked Indians in the 1,85,000 pounds sterling tournament had decent outings too. Vidit Gujrathi pulled off an easy victory against Rolf Bergstrom, SP Sethuraman accounted for compatriot Pratyusha Bodda while Spaniard Pereda Carlos Nava proved no match for Abhijeet Gupta.