In the Asian Continental Chess Championship in Tashkent, Indian Grand Master and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta faced defeat at the hands of unheralded Fang Yan of China in the first round. However, highest rated Indian Grandmaster in the fray, B Adhiban easily toppled the defence of Shamsiddin Vakhidov of Uzbekistan.Vidit Gujrathi also got off to a flier giving a positional lesson to his lesser known opponent Bakhodir Kholmirzaev. Grand Master Surya Shekhar Ganguly was also at his best in crushing Tsogbayar Baterdene of Mongolia. It was a routine Sicilian Najdorf in which Ganguly's immense experience came in handy for a king side attack. The game was over in just 34 moves. Amongst the Indian favourites, SP Sethuraman was the other winner with white pieces against Arif Abdul Hafiz of Indonesia. In the women's championship being held simultaneously, Padmini Rout started off steadily with a fine victory over Asian junior girls' champion Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh of Mongolia.But it was a bit of a setback for former world junior girls' champion Soumya Swaminathan who was held to a draw by Sultana Sharmin Shirin. The Asian continental championships have a total prize pool of USD 75000 at stake for the winners apart from a place in next World chess cup. There are eight rounds still remaining in both championships.