Third seeded Ashwini Kulkarni got off to an unexpected start when she tasted defeat at the hands of 28th seeded Sachin Jagtap, while 29th seed Sudhir maintained the tempo of the day by drawing fourth seed Dhananjay.

The tourney, which also serves as a selection platform for the Central Maharashtra team in the Maharashtra State Selection tournament for National `B', has seen the entry of 50 players, including four who are FIDE rated.

The Poona District Chess Association (PDCA) organised tournament is open to players from Pune, Ahmednagar, Nasik, Jalgaon, Dhule and Raigad and is being played as per FIDE's rules in Swiss League.

The tournament was earlier inaugurated by Umesh Kumar Aggarwal, Conservator of Forests with the IFS. Joseph D'Souza -- PDCA tournament secretary, and International Master Arun Vaidya presided over the proceedings.

RESULTS
Sunil (Wanas Engineering) bt CJ Tikekar; Kiran Pandit Rao (Central Excise) bt Kiran Mehta; Ashwini Kulkarni lost to Sachin Jagtap; Sudhir T drew Dhananjay; Abhijit Joshi bt Milind Ashtaputre; Sandeep Gohad bt Gaurav K; Eesha Karvade bt Deepak; Saurav Ambekar bt Rahul P; Madhuri Patil bt Nikhil D; Soumitra Mazumdar bt Dhananjay Shinde; Prasanna bt Pravin; Tanmay bt Amar Tayade; Yash Aggarwal bt Amit Doshi; Sridhar D bt Lalit Rajopadhyay.