2008 National 'A' Women's Chess Championship of India

From The Hindu.com - Round 4 Report. Five players currently tied with 2.5/4. Current leader is Kruttika Nadig with 3.0/4. December 22, 2008 Kruttika outplays Swati, in sole lead Kamesh Srinivasan NEW DELHI: Kruttika Nadig sailed past former champion Swati Ghate in the fourth round of the Parsvnath 35th National ‘A’ women’s chess championship at the Russian Centre of Science and Culture here on Sunday. Kruttika played the closed Sicilian with a rare touch of authority to cruise home in 31 moves, for her third win of the tournament. Kruttika is the sole leader with three points, while defending champion Tania Sachdev, Amrutha Mokal, Eesha Karavade, Mary Ann Gomes and Soumya Swaminathan were breathing down her neck with 2.5 points each. On a lively day, when five of the six games were decisive, Kruttika took the cake with her crafty handling of a sharp variation. “I sacrificed a pawn to gain initiative. Eventually, I not only got the pawn back but also a strong positional advantage. I usually don’t play this, but had prepared it in the morning,” said Kruttika. Eesha beats Soumya The fine run of Soumya hit a speed-breaker in the form of Eesha. “I surprised her with the French opening, but she played badly,” said WGM Eesha, after her 34-move demolition of the overnight leader. Amrutha continued to fight hard despite her constant trouble with time. In fact, the lesser the time on her clock, the better she played, as she check-mated the better-rated Padmini Rout in 32 moves. Tania back on track Tania of Air-India revived her fortunes with a clinical performance against last year’s runner-up Kiran Manisha Mohanty. She galloped on an active knight in the end game, against her opponent’s frozen bishop, to grab a crucial point. Asian junior champion Mary consolidated her position with a victory over Pon N. Krithika in 49 moves. The results (fourth round): Amrutha Mokal 2.5 bt Padmini Rout 1; Kruttika Nadig 3 bt Swati Ghate 2; Nisha Mohota 1.5 drew with Bhakti Kulkarni 1; Mary Ann Gomes 2.5 bt Pon N. Krithika 1.5; Tania Sachdev 2.5 bt Kiran Manisha Mohanty 1; Soumya Swaminathan 2.5 lost to Eesha Karavade 2.5.

2008 National 'A' Women's Chess Championship of India

The Indian press is giving enthusiastic coverage to the National 'A' Women's Chess Championship this year - the best yet, I'd say. Perhaps the fantastic year that Indian chess stars have had, including the successful defending of his world chess champion title by GM Vishy Anand, has fired the press up as never before, and interest is at an all-time high in chess across the country. I love seeing this kind of enthusiasm for the game I love, particularly for a chess femme event. Here is a sampling of article that cropped up in a news search a few minutes ago: Kruttika defeats Bhakti Hindu, India - 1 hour ago NEW DELHI: Kruttika Nadig took the long route to victory against former National junior champion Bhakti Kulkarni in the third round of the Parsvnath 35th ... Amrutha holds Soumya in Parsvnath National Women Chess Bombay News, India - 5 hours ago Maharashtra's Amrutha Mokal held overnight leader Soumya Swaminathan to a creditable draw on the top table in the third round of ongoing Parsvnath 35th ... Amrutha holds Soumya in Parsvnath National Women Chess SINDH TODAY, Pakistan - 6 hours ago New Delhi, Dec 20 (IANS) Maharashtra’s Amrutha Mokal held overnight leader Soumya Swaminathan to a creditable draw on the top table in the third round of ... Amrutha holds Soumya in Parsvnath National Women Chess Thaindian.com, Thailand - 7 hours ago New Delhi, Dec 20 (IANS) Maharashtra’s Amrutha Mokal held overnight leader Soumya Swaminathan to a creditable draw on the top table in the third round of ... Tania, Amrutha held at National Women championship Indiatimes, India - 8 hours ago 20 Dec 2008, 1833 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: Defending champion Tania Sachdev was once again held to a draw, while overnight leader Soumya Swaminathan also ... Soumya stuns Tania Hindu, India - 22 hours ago NEW DELHI: Soumya Swaminathan surprised defending champion Tania Sachdev with her clean calculation under time-pressure to emerge as the leader after two ... Here's the first article from The Hindu. The writer enthusiastically conveyed the excitement and tension of Round 3, which was keenly fought by all of the chess femmes. Sport - Chess Kruttika defeats Bhakti Kamesh Srinivasan (File photo: Kuttika Nadig) NEW DELHI: Kruttika Nadig took the long route to victory against former National junior champion Bhakti Kulkarni in the third round of the Parsvnath 35th National ‘A’ women’s chess championship at the Russian Centre of Science and Culture here on Saturday. With the leader Soumya Swaminathan being held to a draw by a gutsy Amrutha Mokal, the 20-year-old Kruttika had reasons to be satisfied with her position, half point behind. “It was a very funny game,” observed Kruttika. Complicated position After the Slav Defence had led to a complicated position, Kruttika conceded that she tried ‘all kinds of tricks’, to find a breakthrough. Eventually, she had two bishops against a rook, but combined her queen with the bishops to wreak havoc and swallowed the rook as well. Kruttika could have sealed the match with a bishop move on the 62nd turn, but drove the enemy king all over the board before executing the checkmate in 73 moves. “I sacrificed to gain tempo, but she made some mistakes and lost,” said Kruttika, even as she agreed that she did not play the best moves, owing to time trouble. Three-time Asian junior champion Mary Ann Gomes, grappling with a bout of cold, bolstered her sagging morale with a 37-move victory over last year’s runner-up Kiran Manisha Mohanty. “It was a very tough game. She had an attack, but once it failed, my pieces became active. I gained material advantage too. “I should not have let the match drift for so long. There should have been a better option,” said Mary. She took her tally to 1.5 points with the victory in 37 moves. Swati Ghate was also happy to get back to winning ways after an error in the second round when she had to endure the ignominy of being check-mated following a hasty king move. The 28-year-old sacrificed to gain momentum, but did not have to work hard on her strategy for long as her opponent blundered the queen and lost her way. “I could have played a better course, but there is a long way ahead,” said Swati. Time trouble Soumya played as well as she could, but found dark horse Amrutha a tough nut to crack, despite the latter facing her usual enemy, time trouble. At one stage, Soumya took so much time to plan her course, nearly 20 minutes for a move, that there was hardly any difference in the clock of the two. “She played very well. There was nothing much I could do,” said the 19-year-old Soumya who had upset defending champion Tania Sachdev in the second round. The 22-year-old Tania revealed her craft in holding WGM Eesha Karavade to a draw in 53 moves, despite being a pawn less in a knight against bishop end-game. Pon N. Krithika continued to impress with her understanding of Ruy Lopez, as she snatched half a point from WGM Nisha Mohota in a 36-move encounter. The results (third round): Soumya Swaminathan (2.5) drew with Amrutha Mokal (1.5); Eesha Karavade (1.5) drew with Tania Sachdev (1.5); Kiran Manisha Mohanty (1) lost to Mary Ann Gomes (1.5); Pon N. Krithika (1.5) drew with Nisha Mohota (1); Bhakti Kulkarni (0.5) lost to Kruttika Nadig (2); Swati Ghate (2) bt Padmini Rout (1). Fourth round pairings: Amrutha-Padmini; Kruttika-Swati; Nisha-Bhakti; Mary-Krithika; Tania-Kiran; Soumya-Eesha.

2008 National 'A' Women's Chess Championship of India

Story from The Times of India: Soumya upsets Tania to jump into sole lead 20 Dec 2008, 0055 hrs IST, TNN NEW DELHI: Soumya Swaminathan jumped into sole lead with 2 points after upsetting defending champion and top seed Tania Sachdev in the second round of the 35th National Women’s A Chess Championship on Friday. The day saw a lot of surprises as the four decisive results went in favour of underdogs. Amrutha Mokal got the better off WGM Swati Ghate in 35 moves. In another surprise result, N Krithika overcame second seed Kruttika Nadig in just 30 moves. Another WGM, Nisha Mohota also suffered a setback as she lost to Kiran Manisha Mohanty of Orissa. Padmini Rout and Eesha Karavade signed the peace treaty against Bhakti Kulkarni and Mary Ann Gomes respectively in the other matches.

2008 National 'A' Women's Chess Championship of India

From Indopia.in Tania off to a flier in National Women's 'A' chess Published: December 18,2008 New Delhi, Defending champion Tania Sachdev of Air India got off to a flying start defeating Amrutha Mokal of Maharashtra in the first round of the Parsvnath 35th National Women schess championship here today. Second seed Kruttika Nadig and fourth seed Soumya Swaminathan also scored fine victories over Kiran Manisha Mohanty and Asian Junior champion Mary Ann Gomes respectively. Third seed Eesha Karavade was lucky to escape with a draw against Nisha Mohota in the opener. In the other games of the day, Swati Ghate played imaginatively to beat Bhakti Kulkarni while youngest participant and under-14 girls world champion Padmini Rout played out a draw with Pon N Krithika. The 12-player, 11-round event saw some fascinating games in the first round and Tania was quite impressive in her mauling of Amrutha who was outplayed after a bad opening. Playing the white side of Queen Indian defense, International Master Tania controlled the game early. Amrutha fell under time pressure and gave up in just 28 moves. Playing with black pieces, Soumya Swaminathan accounted for in-form Mary in a Sicilian Najdorf game. Launching a side variation in English attack, Soumya benefited from a strategic error in the middle game from Mary and won after 33 moves. Mohanty tried a recently popular variation in the Sicilian Najdorf against Kruttika Nadig but her plans were foiled by the latter in a fine display of counter attacking chess. Kruttika won in 37 moves. Round One Results: Tania Sachdev beat Amrutha Mokal; Bhakti Kulkarni lst to Swati Ghate; Soumya Swaminatha beat Mary Ann Gomes; Kiran Manisha Mohanty lost to Kruttika Nadig; Pon N Krithika drew with Padmini Rout; Eesha Karavade drew with Nisha Mohota.