Apayao pride Mhage Gerriahlou Sebastian opened her bid against a much higher rated player and came crushing down to earth even as her male counterpart Alekhine Nouri secured a draw at the start of the World Junior Chess Championships in Sardinia, Italy Thursday here.
Sebastian (Elo rating 1868) fell to Woman FIDE Master Michalina Rudzinska of Poland as the 44th ranked player of 65 fell to 56th place after one round in the tournament.
The Flora, Apayao native next faces a much lighter foe in Dimitra Lydia Danilidi (Elo 1498) of Greece who lost to WFM Luisa Bashylina (Elo 2073) of Germany in the opener in the 11 round tournament that drew nearly 200 players all over the world in 11 rounds of action.
Thirty of the players won their games in the opening round of the Women Under 20 with top seed International Master Nurguyl Salimova (Elo 2415) leading the way after beating Indonesian WFM Diajeng Theresa Singgih (Elo 1991).
The top seed next faces Kazakhstan’s Nazerke Nurgali (Elo 2169) who was upset by an unrated Singaporean, Durga Saravanan (Elo 1736).
Also winning on day one are: German Jana Schneider (Elo 2331), Indian Nutakki Priyanka (Elo 2331) and unrated Yelyzaveta Hrebenschykova (Elo 2268), who were previously ranked 5th, 7th and 9th at the start of the tournament.
Sebastian’s Polish conqueror, Rudzinska moved six notches up from 11th to 5th.
Meanwhile, the FIDE Master Nouri (Elo 2251) drew with Austrian GM Felix Blohberger (Elo 2493) who was ranked 19th at the start of the games. The Austrian dropped to 54th spot after the draw with Nouri who moved up 64th in the open side which drew 120 players.
Russian GM Andrey Esipenko, now playing under FIDE, opened his bid for the crown as he beat Mexican IM Sion Radamantys Galaviz Medina (Elo 2345).
The former world number 20 has Indian IM GB Harshavardhan (Elo 2433) for his next opponent.
German GM Frederik Svane (Elo 2566) improved one notch higher to second spot after beating Indian Chatterjee (Elo 2345) and now faces another Indian in IM Amit Doshi Moksh (Elo 2430) who won in his opener against Israeli Guy Gov.
Second seed GM Arsenly Nesterov (Elo 2567) also of Russia but playing under FIDE drew his opening game and fell to number 61. It was Uzbekh Mukhammadali Abdurakhmonov (Elo 2345) who salvaged the draw against the Russian GM.
The tournament will be played until October 22 even as Sebastian looks forward to several other international tournaments before the end of the year, said father Jerzon including the University Athletic Association of the Philippines where she plays under the Far Eastern University – Senior High School team next month, a tournament in Bangkok, Thailand “I believe and in Tagaytay. Pigeon Lobien
