Syed Kirmani helps youngest participant Arko Narayan Ganguly, at three years and two months, make a move at the inauguration of the Telegraph Schools’ Chess meet at Gorky Sadan Sunday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: All the seeded players scored comfortable victories on the opening day of the XVI The Telegraph Schools’ Chess Championship which got underway at Alekhine Chess Club, Gorky Sadan on Sunday.

With a few last minute outstation entries the total number of entries went up to 246.

Top seed Rahul Sangma of Govt High School, Chapra faced little resistance from Anubhav Mondal of Sree Jain Vidyalaya in a Sicilian defence and went on to checkmate his opponent in 35 moves.

Second seed Akshat Khamparia of Bandsley English Medium School, Kaini (M.P.), who arrived this morning, prevailed over Sreya Basu of S.N. Roy Balika Vidyalaya in 37 moves .

Third seed Tejdeep Adabala of All Saints High School, Hyderabad, too, had little difficulty against Nikunj Saria of Calcutta Boy’s School and checkmated him in 37 moves. Defending champion Joydeep Dutta required only 29 moves to get the better of R. Mitra. Experienced Sourav Bose of Julien Day School punished Ayush Popat of Akshar for neglecting the development of his pieces and won in 21 moves.

Mary Ann Gomes of Frank Correa Academy started her campaign with a comfortable win against Anusmita Mukherjee .

The three visually challenged players from Louis Braille Memorial School for the Sightless, Uttarpara, Ganesh Kisku, Sudip Rajbanshi and Naresh Pramanik won their Round I games.

Among those present at the inauguration was Alekhine Club president Asoke Ghosh. Frooti will provide refreshment to all the participants on all match days.

TOP BOARD RESULTS

Rahul Sangma (1) bt Anubhav Mondal(0); Shreya Basu (0) lost to Akshat Khamparia(1); Tejdeep Adabwala (1) bt Nikhunj Saria(0); Rishav Mitra (0) lost to Joydeep Dutta(1); Aniket R Pawashe (1) bt Akshay Daga(0); Rivu Ghosh (0) lost to Rajib Dhar(1); Sourav Bose(1) bt Ayush Popat (0); Anusmita Mukherjee(0) lost to Mary Ann Gomes (1); Soumya Thakurta(1) bt Sneha Bhattacharya (0); Soumyadeep Ghosh (0) lost to Anurag Jaiswal (1); Debayan Majumdar (1) bt Duke Nandi (0); Dibyojit De Tafadar (0) absent against Minhazuddin Sagar (1); Indradeep Giri (1) bt S Gangopadhyay (0); Sanmitra Guha (0) lost to C.R. G. Krishnan (1); Samina Aktar Liza (1) bt Anwesha Ghosh (0).