Aravindh Chithambaram sole leader after first round at 61st Rubinstein Memorial

Indian GM Aravindh Chithambaram took the sole lead after being the only player to win the first-round match at the 61st Rubinstein Memorial chess tournament, taking place at the Spa Theater in Polanica-Zdroj, Poland, on Saturday.

Aravindh, the top seed, beat England’s Michael Adams with white pieces in 63 moves.

The event is a traditional annual tournament honouring Akiba Rubinstein, one of the most influential Polish players in history.

It has a 10-player round-robin format. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 more minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment starting from move one.

In the second round, India No. 5 Aravindh, who has a FIDE rating of 2723, faces Germany’s Matthias Bluebaum.

Round 1 Results

Aravindh Chithambaram (IND) bt. Michael Adams (ENG)

Nodirbek Yakubboev (UZB) drew with Radoslaw Wojtaszek (POL)

Jan Klimkowski (POL) drew with Igor Kovalenko (UKR)

Mateusz Bartel (POL) drew with Matthias Bluebaum (GER)

David Navara (CZE) drew with Pawel Teclaf (POL)

Round 2 Pairings (Player on the left will have white pieces)

Radoslaw Wojtaszek (POL) vs Pawel Teclaf (POL)

Michael Adams (ENG) vs David Navara (CZE)

Matthias Bluebaum (GER) vs Aravindh Chithambaram (IND)

Igor Kovalenko (UKR) vs Mateusz Bartel (POL)

Nodirbek Yakubboev (UZB) vs Jan Klimkowski (POL)

The second round will begin at 6:30 p.m. IST on Sunday.