Women Premier 2017: Odisha girls off to a winning start

by Ankit Dalal - 26/11/2017

The Iwasa National Women's Premier 2017 kicked off on Saturday with twelve women players to decide the National Champion of the country. It was a keenly fought round with three decisive results. Padmini Rout, the defending champion, managed to outwit Bala Kannamma, debutant Sakshi Chitlange began with a win over Samriddhaa Ghosh and Kiran Manisha Mohanty was able to defeat Srishti Pandey. We have pictures from the venue and Kiran Manisha Mohanty explaining her win in a video. Report from Surat by Ankit Dalal.

As mentioned in our introductory report, this tournament is going to be a race between top four seeds - Mary Ann Gomes, Padmini Rout, Soumya Swaminathan and Bhakti Kulkarni. It will be interesting to see if some of the other players, especially the experienced Swati Ghate and young Sakshi Chitlange give these four top rated players a run for their money.

The tournament was inaugurated on the giant chess set

Results of round one

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	1885		Pandey Srishti	0 - 1	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2159	12
2	2	2333	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	½ - ½	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	2165	11
3	3	2311	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	½ - ½	WIM	Nandhidhaa Pv	2190	10
4	4	2248	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	1 - 0		Ghosh Samriddhaa	1988	9
5	5	2058		Bala Kannamma P	0 - 1	IM	Padmini Rout	2324	8
6	6	2277	WGM	Swati Ghate	½ - ½	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2320	7

Defending champion Padmini Rout got off to a winning start against Bala Kannamma | Photo: Ankit Dalal

Padmini's game was a model one where you can learn the art of playing for win when your opponent simply wants to exchange everything and play for a draw.

Srishti Pandey played the opening well, but later lost the thread and the game to Kiran Manisha Mohanty | Photo: Ankit Dalal

Kiran shows her win over Srishti Pandey

This is Sakshi Chitlange's first National Premier and she has already made a winning start | Photo: Ankit Dalal

Bhakti Kulkarni had the white pieces but couldn't make it count against Nandhidhaa P.V. | Photo: Ankit Dalal

Two Pune girls Soumya Swaminathan (above) and Swati Ghate split the point | Photo: Ankit Dalal

Ranking crosstable after round one:

Rk.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	IM	Padmini Rout	2324	IND	*										1		1,0	0,0	0,00	1,0
	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2159	IND		*								1			1,0	0,0	0,00	1,0
3	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2248	IND			*									1	1,0	0,0	0,00	1,0
4	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2333	IND				*					½				0,5	0,0	0,25	0,0
	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2311	IND					*			½					0,5	0,0	0,25	0,0
	WGM	Swati Ghate	2277	IND						*	½						0,5	0,0	0,25	0,0
	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2320	IND						½	*						0,5	0,0	0,25	0,0
	WIM	Nandhidhaa Pv	2190	IND					½			*					0,5	0,0	0,25	0,0
	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	2165	IND				½					*				0,5	0,0	0,25	0,0
10		Pandey Srishti	1885	IND		0								*			0,0	0,0	0,00	0,0
		Bala Kannamma P	2058	IND	0										*		0,0	0,0	0,00	0,0
		Ghosh Samriddhaa	1988	IND			0									*	0,0	0,0	0,00	0,0

Pairing of round two:

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	12	2159	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty		WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2320	7
2	8	2324	IM	Padmini Rout		WGM	Swati Ghate	2277	6
3	9	1988		Ghosh Samriddhaa			Bala Kannamma P	2058	5
4	10	2190	WIM	Nandhidhaa Pv		WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2248	4
5	11	2165	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman		WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2311	3
6	1	1885		Pandey Srishti		WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2333	2

SMCA online blitz contest for National Premier 2017:

Your chance to win ChessBase products worth Rs.5,000.

Step 1: Register yourself for the SMCA online blitz. You can do it from here.

Step 2: Choose your favourite to win out of the 12 participants. (The top 6 seeds are displayed in the picture above)

Step 3: You have to tell us what is so special about the favourite that you have chosen in step 2: For eg. if you favourite to win is Padmini Rout, you can write a few words about her what makes her so special.

You can leave your answer in the comments section below.

Last date for entries is 28th of November 2017. The right answer will receive a gift coupon worth Rs. 5,000 of ChessBase products which has to be used by 31st of December 2017.