Ohrid, Mecedonia: Indian started with a strong note by pulling a major upset by posting a smashing victory against highly seeded German team in the inaugural round of 15th IBCA Chess Olympiad for Visual Impaired, at Macedonia.

National champion Kishan Gangolli played a very good positional game against Muller Thorestien.

Young stalwart Soundarya Kumar Pradhan in his maiden appearance, had a crushing victory against Germany’s IshtedMirko in a slav defence game.

On the fourth board, Ashvin Makwana had a well fought draw against Frank in an unorthodox game.

On the top board, veteran Sirish Patil stretched Olliver Muller (Fide Master) of Germany to a long battle and went down fighting.

India 2.5-1.5 victory in the inaugural round was a moral booster for the Indian team. The Indian team will meet Kosovo in the second round. The Indian team has been participating in the Olympiad and their best result was a 5th position finish in 2012 Chennai. T

The president of All India Chess Federation for the blind Charudatta Jadhav and coach of the team Sekhar Sahoo are hopeful to clinch a medal in this tough competition