Pune, May 31 (PTI) Grandmaster Farrukh Amonatov of Tajikistan started his campaign in the inaugural Maharashtra International Open GM chess tournament with a confident win over India's Anish Gandhi here on Tuesday.

Fresh from a victory in the KIIT GM Open, the Tajik GM, the top seed, showed his class playing with white pieces in a Sicilian game against Gandhi.

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He won in 35 moves in a Sicilian Variation game.

Second-seeded M R Lalith Babu, the highest rated Indian in the fray, encountered stiff resistance from Joshua A P in a Queen's Gambit Declined game before winning in 44 moves, while the fourth seed Alexei Federov got the better of Tejaswani Sagar after 43 moves.

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Fifth seed Deep Sengupta of India posted a win over Atul Dahale in 38 moves.

Important results: Round 1: GM Farrukh Amonatov (1) beat Anish Gandhi (0); WIM Tejaswini Sagar (0) lost to GM Alexei Federov (1); GM Deep Sengupta (1) beat Atul Dahale (0); Aanjaneya Phatak (0) lost to GM V Karthik (1); GM Mikhail Nikitenko (1) beat C M Manisha Kadam (0); GM M R Lalith Baby (1) beat Joshua AP (0).

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)