Mangalore: The top players won their opening encounters in the Mangalore Fide Rated All India Open Chess tournament-2007, which began here on Monday.

GM Pravin Thipsay, IM D.P. Singh, Sapatrshi Roy, Atanu Lahiri, P. Konguvel and N. Sudhakar Babu won their matches and share the lead with one point each. Thipsay had an easy win over Shreyas Kamath on table one, while D.P. Singh defeated unseeded P. Megharaj on the second table while Saptarshi won against Dr A. Nagaraj.

The All India Chess Federation, meanwhile, has slashed the entry fees of various competitions to help players participate in more tournaments.

The match registration fee of Rs 500 has been reduced to Rs 200 and the donor’s entry fee of Rs 15,000 has been reduced to Rs 7500, said AICF general secretary D.V. Sundar at the inauguration of the meet on Monday. (PTI)