Kolkata hosts chess event

 The Governor presented tournament mementos to Participating Chess Stars in presence of Grand Master Dibyendu Barua, Tribhuvan Kabra of RamRatna Group and Gautam De Director of ICCR.

 

Soumya Swaminathan of PSCB emerged as the sole leader with 4 points after the conclusion of the 5th round of the RamRatna National Women's Premier Chess Championship at ICCR at Kolkata on Tuesday. While Soumya  was content to retain her top spot with a draw against Pratyusha Bodda of Andhra Pradesh in just 22 moves, the other overnight leader, Swati Ghate of LIC went down fighting against Bhakti Kulkarni of Goa in a rook and pawn ending . Swati now shares the 2nd position jointly with Padmini Rout of Odisha with 3.5 points each.

 

Top seed and defending champion, Padmini Rout of Odisha put up a stellar performance to get the better of  Michelle Catherina  of Tamil Nadu with black in a French defence. Padmini 's pawn roller of the kingside put Michelle in a spot as her king and queen were awkwardly placed and she resigned when on the verge of losing a piece.

 

World U-14 girls' champion R. Vaishali of Tamil Nadu upset former National champion Tania Sachdev of Air India in a same coloured bishop ending. Playing in an unusual fashion Vaishali opened up the ‘h’ file early and castled on the queenside making her intention of attacking her opponent 's king clear. Vaishali won a pawn on the 18th move. She gave her pawn back a few moves later and went into a bishop ending which was heading towards a draw, but Tania faltered and went down in 51 moves. 

 

In a major upset, bottom ranker, Neha Singh opened her account with a win against V. Varshini of Tamil Nadu in a Sicilian defence. Neha won a piece in the middle game as Varshini mishandled the position and weakened her kingside. With extra material, Neha had little difficulty in weaving a mating net around her opponent's king.

 

In a battle between the two Priyankas -  K. Priyanka of Tamil Nadu and Priyanka Nutakki of Andhra Pradesh- the latter got the better of the former in a minor piece ending which arose from the French Winawer.