Local boy Thrish Karthik set the tone for the day, scoring an upset win over Grandmaster Suat Atalik of Turkey in the first round of the 10th Chennai Open International Grandmaster chess tournament for the N. Mahalingam Trophy here on Thursday.
Top seed GM Timur Gareyev of USA scored a comfortable victory on the top board, while the second board saw Russian GM Ivan Rozum losing half a point to lower-rated Harshal Patil.
The tournament was inaugurated by Arjuna awardee IM Manuel Aaron.
Important results (round 1): S. Kumar lost to Timur Gareyev Timur (USA); Ivan Rozum (Rus) drew with Harshal Patil; C. Lakshmi lost to Sergei Tiviakov (Ned); Yuri Soloedovnichenko (Ukr) bt Shubham Kumthekar; Ghelani Dhairya lost to Adam Tukhaev (Ukr); Sivuk Vitaly (Ukr) bt E. Godson Merlin; Suat Atalik (Tur) lost to Thrish Karthik; S.K. Kanishk lost to Roeland Pruijssers (Ned); P. Karthikeyan bt S. Rohit; Deepan Chakkravarthy bt Samdani Sahil Sagar.