Seven boys and as many girls in the Under-9 category took an early lead on the opening day of district Under-15 and Under-9 chess championship at JRD Tata Sports Complex in Jamshedpur on Tuesday.
Animesh Rai, Krishna Agarwal, Om Vinayak, Awanish Pandey, S. Santosh, Divyansh Singhania and Vinayak Nagelia posted wins in the Under-9 boys' category.
Saara Jain, Samaira Doshi, Bharti Mishra, Siddhi Nagelia, Swara Kaushik, Trishaa Rao and Triyani Mitra were the winning girls.
All the children are from Jamshedpur and they have earned a point each after round one.
A total of 106 budding chess players are taking part in the four-day event being organised by East Singhbhum District Chess Association. The matches will be played over seven rounds.
Animesh beat Krishiv Gupta while Krishna came better against Ashaan Kumar. Om outplayed Atharv Rishi and Awanish won the game against Pratyush Naman. Santosh, Divyansh and Vinayak claimed victories over Divyansh Chawla, Vansh Jawanpuria and Himanshu Kumar, respectively.
Saara, heading to Romania next month for the Under-7 World School Chess Championship, started her campaign well against Aadya Tiwary with a comfortable win in the Under-9 girls' category.
Samaira busted the challenge of Amily Bera. Bharti defeated Sarakshi Pani, whereas Siddhi outsmarted Divyangana Raj. Swara tripped Drishti Thacker while Trishaa beat Geetika Verma in another match. Triyani outplayed Nikkitasha Sakhre.