NAGPUR, Aug 11: It was double trouble in the form of the Sengupta siblings who made all the noise on the opening day of the 4th BPCL FIDE Rating chess tournament here today.

The 11-year-old Pratik Sengupta fought, perhaps, the toughest battle of his career when he took on the top seed TS Ravi (IOC) on the first table to settle for a draw in 45 moves. His younger brother, nine-year-old Deep had something more to cherish about. He pipped highly rated R Balasubramanium (Integral Coach Factory, Madras) in just 24 moves of Spanish Opening on the 12th table.

Pitted against top seed FIDE Master Ravi (2385), the elder Sengupta began confidently. His French Defence Tarrash variation saw Ravi in deep trouble right from the opening. However, the novice Pratik missed a winning line and settled for a draw.

Earlier, Ravi had offered Pratik for a draw but the later did not agree. The denial probably helped the top seed better his tactics. At this level Pratik needed to do exceptionally well and keep his senior rival under pressure.

Ravi recovered fast to score over the `little brain' and Pratik had no choice but to settle for a draw after a long tussle that lasted over six hours.

On the other tables, second seed IM V Sarvanan beat D Mukherjee in 28 moves of King's Indian defence, while another IM RB Ramesh bounced back to defeat JK Chabra in 29 moves.

There was one more chess prodigy who stole the limelight on the day one. A school girl from Haryana, Anuradha Beniwal, crushed one of the local challengers DR Jaiswal (Ordnance Factory, Nagpur) in mere 22 moves.

West Bengal's IWM Nisha Mohota was beaten by Sanjeev Gupta (Maharashtra) in 62 moves. FIDE Master Sajasdas had a smooth sailing against PR Patnaik. Nagpur Central Excise's SS Soman registered a win over Anish Mukherjee.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.