MUMBAI: Dhruv Muthe, with an Elo rating of 1539, registered a major upset when he shocked second seed American K Raja Aravind in the second round of the 360 One Wealth All India Grand Prix Chess Series at the Russian Centre for Science & Culture on Wednesday.
Dhruv, playing with black, utilized the King’s Indian Defense in response to Raja’s d4 opening, swiftly seizing an advantage as a result of Raja’s inaccuracies.
Attempting to mount a counter-attack, Raja sacrificed a pawn, but Dhruv skilfully countered with centrally placed knights, posing threats to win an exchange. Faced with the looming prospect of losing more material, Raja resigned on move 35. Dhruv experienced a double delight as the game was selected as the best game of the second round by the jury, which included the legendary Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay.
Five more rounds remain to be played in this Rs 2.50 Lakhs prize money tournament, which is being conducted by Indian Chess School under the patronage of Fide, the All India Chess Federation, and the Maharashtra Chess Association.
Key results: Kulkarni V (2) bt (1) Reyaansh Venkat; Agraval Shravana (1) lost to (2) Iyer Arvind; K Raja Aravind (1) lost to (2) Muthe Dhruv; Arnav Koli (2) bt (1) Vihaan Rao; Boricha Yohan (2) bt (1) Tvesha Jain; Pasbola Samvid (1) lost to (2) Mishra Sanjeev; Ram Parab (2) bt (1) Parv Hakani; Gogri Vedaant (1) lost to (2) Guru Prakash; Kapadi Yash (2) bt (1) Prabhakar Aariv; Palaash Mapara (1) lost to (2) Shah Mihir.
