Abhijeet Gupta held to a draw in Grand Europe Albena Chess opener
Besides Abhijeet, Tigran Petrosian of Armenia, Levente Vajda of Romania and Tamir Nabaty of Israel were the other Grandmasters who conceded a half point.
Former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta gave up a strong position and was held to a draw by Pavel Janev of Bulgaria in the first round of Grand Europe Albena Chess tournament here.
It turned out to be a rather sedate start for Abhijeet and with just a half point from the first game, the Indian will have some catching up to do in the remaining eight rounds of the 30,000 Euro prize money tournament.
The other Indians in the fray got off to a flyer and topping the list was N Raghvi, who played out a spirited game to hold higher ranked International Master Ivajlo Enchev of Bulgaria.
Waiting for confirmation of his Grandmaster title, Swapnil Dhopade dispatched Lubomir Mishkovski of Bulgaria, while Anurag Mahamal and Sagar Shah got the better off Zheljazko Savov of Bulgaria and Ukrainian Mykola Lisnichuk respectively.
Besides Abhijeet, Tigran Petrosian of Armenia, Levente Vajda of Romania and Tamir Nabaty of Israel were the other Grandmasters who conceded a half point.
The shock of the day was elsewhere as former Women's World champion Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria lost to Turkish youngster Melih Yurtseven.