|
Saheli Nath Held To A Draw
By Arvind Aaron, Press Officer - AICF
Second seed Saheli Nath of West Bengal was held to a draw by Devangi
Patankar of Maharashtra in the opening round of the 33rd St Joseph's
National Women's B Championship on Sep 19. Saheli Nath had a big advantage
but she allowed it to slip in a rook and pawn ending where the extra pawn
did not help. Other higher seeds who did not win include J.E.Kavitha of
Tamil Nadu who was held to a dray by team-mate Ch. Savetha in a long rook
and pawn ending.
Among the favourites to win early was defending champion Supriya Maji of
West Bengal. She scored over Priyanka Kumari (Jha) in 27 moves with the
black pieces in a Centre Counter opening.
The top seed Nimmy George of Kerala made mincemeat of Mitali Madhurkar
Patil by winning material at every tactical juncture. Kiran Monisha
Mohanty downed Mohana Sengupta of Bengal in 58 moves with the black pieces
in a minor piece ending. Kiran won a pawn nicely and made use of it to
queen first and win.
In the best game of the day, 17th seed Padmini Rout of Orissa sacrificed a
rook and bishop in the rook and bishop ending to beat team-mate Aparajita
Gochhikar with sheer brilliance. Most of the players seem to enjoy this
clean campus and excellent food arrangements by the college. Ten rounds
remain to be played. Twenty players will advance to the National A from
this selection event.
Dr Babu Manoharan, Director of the St Joseph's College of Engineering made
the formal opening move in the board of Tamil Nadu player H.Nilavoli who
is a student of the sponsoring college. "We had sponsored the education of
many players and continue to support chess," said Dr Manoharan.
D.V.Sundar, the dynamic Honorary Secretary of the All India Chess
Federation said he was happy that the event recorded a big increase in the
number of players despite the short notice. He thanked Dr Manoharan for
the support and for providing lodging and boarding for all the players.
back to index
home
Published on : 20.09.2006
|
