15-year-old holds GM Viorel

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Shardul Gagare

Fifteen-year-old Shardul Gagare, a Fide Master, held seventh seed GM Viorel Lordachescu (2619) of Moldavia in the Open International chess tournament, that got underway at Gorky Sadan in Kolkata on Tuesday.
Gagare’s brilliant show has also brightened his chances of earning an IM norm.

In another fine display, IM Aditya Udeshi (2376) also earned creditable half point from ninth seed GM Ahmed Adly (2607) of Egypt.
Fourth seed Abhijit Gupta, the top Indian contender, defeated WGM Mary Ann Gomes.
Mary Ann, who recently booked her IM title by defending her national women championship’s title, had to play super GM Abhijit in the inaugural round.
IM Suvrajit Saha of Kolkata and F.M. Arvindh Chithambaram of Tamil Nadu snatched half points each from GMs S.P. Sethuraman and M.R. Venkatesh, respectively.
Second seed Anton Korobov was off to a bright start making short work of Indian IM S. Nitin.