38th Indian Women's National Chess Championship

Continuing press coverage of the Indian Women's National Chess Championship:

From The Times of India

Pratyusha joins leaderboard in women's chess meet

PTI | Oct 31, 2011, 06.39PM IST

CHENNAI: Young Andhra girl Pratyusha Bodda shared the lead with five others at the end of the third round of the Velammal Educational Trust 38th National Women Premier Chess Championship on Monday.

Bodda joined International Masters Tania Sachdev (Delhi) and Nisha Mohota (PSPB), Woman Grandmasters Meenakshi Subbaraman(IA) and Mary Ann Gomes (AAI) and Candidate Master Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa) to lead the table with 2.5 points.

During the last three rounds, Bodda was the impressive winner as she continued her relentless aggression and used her extra exchange to good effect to launch a fierce kingside attack to finish off the hapless Swathi in 42 moves.

In the first three rounds, Bodda has been the toast of the championship, with two WGM scalps, and is poised to get a norm during the course of the championships.

On Monday, Bodda employed the Bishop's opening against WGM Swathi Ghate of Maharashtra and played a fluent middle game, attacking the Black centre and the kingside to win an exchange on the 18th move.

WGMs Subbaraman and Gomes played out an equal exchange variation of the Slav defence to draw the game in 30 moves on the top table.

In the second table, Mohota, who faced the Leningrad Dutch employed by Bhakti Kulkarni gained space on the queenside, but with the pieces getting traded at regular intervals, an equal double bishop ending arose.

Mohota tried to force through matters but young Bhakti was up to the mark in defence and the game was drawn in 61 moves.

The top seed IM Tania was in her element on Monday in her game against Nimmy George of Kerala. Facing a Slav opening, Tania, playing white, outplayed her opponent in the opening phase itself to gain a huge advantage in the middlegame.

She controlled the whole board in a masterly way and broke through Nimmy's defences in style, sacrificing her queen. Tania then doubled her rooks on the eighth rank to force an unavoidable mate.

Defending champion Soumya Swaminathan employed the Benoni set-up against another Andhra girl Sahajasri. Soumya, playing Black, tried every trick in her bag to notch up a full point. She even sacrificed an exchange to drum up an attack against the white king.

But in an interesting position, with time ticking away, Soumya started repeating the moves, apparently in a bid to gain some time.

But Sahajasri was quick to spot a three-fold repetition and made a claim with the arbiters, and when it was established that there was indeed a three-fold repetition in the game, the game was declared drawn.

The second seeded player in the event, WGM Padmini Rout, finally scored a win in her third game against R Bharathi. Padmini, playing Black, employed the popular Najdorj-Dragon setup of the Sicilian defence to outplay Bharathi in 48 moves.

WGM Meenakshi Subbaraman (2009, at Indian
Women's National Chess Championship).

Results: (Round 3):
S Meenakshi (IA) 2.5 drew with Mary Ann Gomes (AAI) 2.5,
Nisha Mohota (PSPB) 2.5 drew with Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa) 2.5,
Tania Sachdev (Del) 2.5 bt A G Nimmy (Ker) 1.5,
Eesha Karavade (Mah) 2 drew with J Saranya (TN) 2,
Pratyusha Bodda (AP) 2.5 bt Swathi Ghate (LIC) 1.5,
R Bharathi (TN) lost to Padmini Rout (Ori) 2,
C Sahajasri (AP) 1.5 drew with Sowmya Swaminathan (PSPB) 1.5,
Pon N Krithika (AICF) 2 bt Aarthie Ramaswamy (IA) 1,
C Divyasree (AP) 1 lost to S Harini (TN) 2,
Shweta Gole (Mah) 1.5 drew with Sai Meera (IB) 1.5,
Kiran Manisha Mohanty (Ori) 1.5 bt M Mahalakshmi (TN) 1,
Swati Mohota (WB) 0.5 lost to A Akshaya (TN) 1.5,
P Michelle Catherina (TN) 0.5 drew with Bagyashree Thipsay (AICF) 1,
Madhurima Shekhar (Del) lost to P V Nandhidhaa (TN) 1,
P Bala Kannamma (TN) 1 bt Supriya Joshi (Mah).

Cross-table after R3 from chess-results.com:

Ranking crosstable after Round 3

Rk.		Name	Rtg	FED	1.Rd	2.Rd	3.Rd	4.Rd	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1		Pratyusha Bodda	2062	IND	16w1	10s½	17w1	4s	2.5	2318	0	0
2	IM	Tania Sachdev	2419	IND	22w1	17s½	12w1	6s	2.5	2252	0	0
3	IM	Mohota Nisha	2320	IND	13w1	25s1	6w½	5s	2.5	2209	0	0
4	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2325	IND	27s1	24w1	5s½	1w	2.5	2129	0	0
5	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	2297	IND	9w1	18s1	4w½	3w	2.5	2117	0	0
6	CM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2289	IND	8s1	20w1	3s½	2w	2.5	2112	0	0
7	WFM	Saranya J	2106	IND	10w½	15s1	11s½	17w	2.0	2348	0	0
8	WFM	Pon Nkrithika	2044	IND	6w0	30s1	25w1	10s	2.0	2209	0	0
9		Harini S	2055	IND	5s0	29w1	24s1	11w	2.0	2129	0	0
10	WGM	Padmini Rout	2356	IND	7s½	1w½	20s1	8w	2.0	2106	0	0
11	IM	Karavade Eesha	2348	IND	26w1	12s½	7w½	9s	2.0	2106	0	0
12		Nimmy A G	2252	IND	14s1	11w½	2s0	13w	1.5	2348	0	0
13		Cholleti Sahajasri	2074	IND	3s0	23w1	16w½	12s	1.5	2318	0	0
14		Shweta Gole	1999	IND	12w0	26s1	18w½	16s	1.5	2117	0	0
15		A Akshaya	1990	IND	19s½	7w0	28s1	25w	1.5	2106	0	0
16	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2318	IND	1s0	19w1	13s½	14w	1.5	2074	0	0
17	WGM	Swathi Ghate	2278	IND	28w1	2w½	1s0	7s	1.5	2062	0	0
18	WIM	Meera Sai	2117	IND	29s1	5w0	14s½	19w	1.5	1999	0	0
19	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2213	IND	15w½	16s0	21w1	18s	1.5	1990	0	0
20	WFM	Bharathi R	2112	IND	30w1	6s0	10w0	21s	1.0	2289	0	0
21	WFM	Mahalakshmi M	1954	IND	24s0	27w1	19s0	20w	1.0	2129	0	0
22	WIM	Thipsay Bagyashree Sathe	2108	IND	2s0	28w½	27s½	23w	1.0	2088	0	0
23		Bala Kannamma P	1978	IND	25w0	13s0	30w1	22s	1.0	2074	0	0
24		Chandika Divyasree	2129	IND	21w1	4s0	9w0	26s	1.0	2055	0	0
25	WGM	Ramaswamy Aarthie	2209	IND	23s1	3w0	8s0	15s	1.0	2044	0	0
26		Nandhidhaa Pv	2105	IND	11s0	14w0	29s1	24w	1.0	1999	0	0
27		Michelle Catherina P	2088	IND	4w0	21s0	22w½	28s	0.5	2108	0	0
28	WFM	Swati Mohota	2030	IND	17s0	22s½	15w0	27w	0.5	2108	0	0
29		Madhurima Shekhar	1906	IND	18w0	9s0	26w0	30s	0.0	2105	0	0
30		Supriya Joshi	1904	IND	20s0	8w0	23s0	29w	0.0	2044	0	0

Annotation:
Tie Break1: rating average of the opponents (variabel with parameters)
Tie Break2: rating average of the opponents (variabel with parameters)
Tie Break3: rating average of the opponents (variabel with parameters)