Savetha Shocks Aarthie

By Arvind Aaron

C.H. Savetha of Tamil Nadu shocked former champion Aarthie Ramaswamy of Air India in the opening round of the 36th St Joseph's National Premier Women Chess Championship at the St Joseph's College of Engineering near Chennai on
December 2.

This edition is a 25-player eleven round Swiss to be held from December 2-12. K. Muralimohan of Chennai is the chief arbiter. It is believed many will made WGM and WIM norms in this event which carries a prize fund of Rs.250,000. The sponsors are St Joseph's College of Engineering. The college is also the venue. They are offering free stay and food for all players and their accompanying persons. Dr Babu Manoharan, Director, St Joseph's College of Engineering made the symbolic opening move against top seed Dronavalli Harika. D.V. Sundar, Honorary Secretary, AICF, K. Murali Mohan, General Secretary, TNSCA, Muthukumar, Secretary, Kanchi District and N. Vijayan, President, Kanchi District participated in the opening ceremony while V. Ravichandran of Mount Chess Academy  welcomed one and all.

There are three former National champions. Two-time champion Tania Sachdev of Delhi was one of the winners who had an easy game against R. Bharathi of Chennai. Another former champion Nisha Mohota of Kolkata had a major escape when Supriya Maji accepted a draw offer while in a clearly superior position. Former champion Aarthie was defeated  by Savetha when the former dropped a piece in the ending.

Defending champion Kruttika Nadig recovered in the middlegame and won the rook and minor piece ending against Sahajasri. She was one of the five Woman Grand Masters who won out of the nine.

The all time record cant be broken in this event. It is six times and held by S. Vijayalakshmi of Air India, Chennai. She had a  baby son recently and is not played since. Swati Ghate is the other Woman Grand Master who is also in the same
state. Koneru Humpy is rated very high and is not required to play in the National Premier Women Championship.

The oldest player is Bindu Saritha of LIC, Kozhikode who is 1966-born. The youngest is Cholleti Sahajasri of Karimnagar who is 1996-born. Both of them lost round one with white to higher rated opponents.

The results (round one): P. Priya (TN) lost to D. Harika (AP), Eesha Karavade (Mah) drew with Kiran Mohanty (Ori),        R. Bharathi (TN) lost to Tania Sachdev (Del), Mary Ann Gomes (WB) bt J. Saranya (TN), Supriya Maji (WB) drew with Nisha Mohota (PSPB), S. Meenakshi (AI) bt Amruta Mokal (Mah), Swati Mohota (WB) drew with Soumya Swaminathan
(Mah), Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa) bt Pallabi Roy (WB), C. Sahajasri (AP) lost to Kruttika Nadig (Mah), Aarthie Ramaswamy (AI) lost to C.H. Savetha (TN), Bindu Saritha (LIC) lost to Sai Meera (IB), Pon N. Krithikha (TN) bt A. Akshaya (TN), A. Sithalatchumi (TN) - bye.

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