4-yr-old Mitrava Guha ponders over a move on Friday

Calcutta: Third seed Saikat Mullick was held by Poulasta Kar, while Pallavi Roy survived a scare against Raj Goenka in the U-13 section on the opening day of the 18th State Age Group Chess Championship on Friday.

The seven-round tournament, which is also a selection trail for the Nationals, is jointly being organised by the Bhowanipur Gujarati Education Society and the West Bengal Chess Association.

Poulasta held his own against Saikat in a Petroff defence. Pallavi squeezed out a draw against Raj in an advanced French Defence.

The other seeded players won with relative ease in their respective age group categories. The Telegraph Schools’ Chess champion and second seed Bitan Banerjee outwitted Paroj Chakraborty with ease with black pieces in 27 moves. Abhratanu Dutta, the top seed, too won comfortably against Panchali Basu in an English opening.

In the U-11 section, top seed Prantik Roy checkmated Jyotirmoy Das in a mere 16 moves . Second seed Samrat Ghorai got the better of Kamalika Chakraborty in 35 moves.

Sayantan Das, the Asian U-8 boys’ champion, won comfortably against Mayukh Singha Roy in the U-9 category, while Adhip Roy defeated Poulami Bhattacharya in the U-7 category.

Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua’s son Dishan drew against Subhradeep Das in the U-7 category. The youngest participant, four-and-half year old Mitrava Guha went down to Suvradeepta Das.

The second and third round matches will be played on Saturday from 10.00 a.m. and 3.00 p.m., respectively.