The Indian National Women Challengers was held from 7th to 15th September 2014 in Goa, on the West Coast of India. It was a qualification tournament for the National Premier which will be held in October this year. Eight players from the tournament were to be selected. With the exception of the top five women players of the nation - Koneru Humpy, Dronavalli Harika, Tania Sachdev, Mary Ann Gomes and Eesha Karavade - all top players took part. In a race between the two IMs, Nisha Mohota and Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman, the former emerged victorious.
On 28th March 2014 IM Nisha Mohota wrote on Facebook:
Six months later this is what Nisha had to say:
Nine years ago, in 2005, Nisha Mohota (2248) had won the National Championship. In 2014 she won again.
The smile says it all. With a score of 9.5/11 Nisha won the championship and 23 Elo-points.
The medalists: Tournament winner Nisha, (center), runner up Vijayalakshmi (left), and third placed Hinduja Reddy (right).
Nisha is not only a WGM but also an International Master. She has won a mesmerizing number of national titles: Under-14 girls in 1993 and 1994, Under-18 girls in 1993, National Juniors in 1999 and 2000, and to cap it all, the National Premier title in 2005. But the going has been tough for her in the last few years. In 2007, she boasted of a rating of 2416, but in the last seven years her Elo has consistently gone down and is now at 2248.
Nisha Mohata - focused from the word "go"
"I was completely focused on the task at hand and had disconnected myself from everything that was not related to chess for the past six months", says Nisha.
Nisha played a great tournament with eight wins and three draws. She was closely followed by Vijayalakshmi who finished with the same score, but the worse tie-break. Nisha's favourite game from the tournament was her fifth round victory over WGM Soumya Swaminathan. A smooth positional game culminating in a fine endgame.
Mohota, Nisha2248–Soumya, Swaminathan23521–0D9041st ch-IND w Challengers, Goa509.09.2014Nisha Mohota
This was the second round of the day. I had a long game in the morning. So there was hardly enough time for food and rest. All I did as part of my preparation was thinking for ten minutes as to how I would counter different systems of my opponent. Soumya, who not only is a very good player (she was current National Challengers Champion, Former National Premier Champion and also former World Junior Girl's Champion) and a very good friend of mine but is also a great human being! This is one of my favourite games in this tournament and I like this game for its simplicity. 1.c4 f6 2.c3d5 3.d4 g6 The game transposed to a Grunfeld and this was one of the openings I expected. 4.f3 g7 5.h4 This was the first time I tried this move and Soumya took some time to make her next move.c5 6.dxc5 a5 7.cxd5 xd5 8.xd5 xc3+ 9.d2 xd2+10.xd2 xd2+ 11.xd2 White has emerged a pawn up and Black will have to spend some time trying to get back the pawn. e612.e3 0-0 13.c1 c8 14.a3 a5 There was no way I could hang on to the pawn, so I decided to give it in a situation when my centralised king's position will prove more useful than opponent's castled king. 15.c4 xc5 16.e2 xc4+ 17.xc4 xc417...d7 In my post mortem analysis with Soumya we felt that this is the way for Black to equalise. 18.xc5 xc5 19.c1 b620.c4 d7 21.d1 c8 22.b3 c7= 18.xc4 c6 19.a4 The position is very close to equality.Only my king is better placed than opponent's. h5? I think this move could have been avoided. I got time to control the open d file.19...d8 20.d1 Now things are getting difficult for Black. f8 21.d7a7?! This move was a little unexpected. The rook on a7 looks a bit odd.21...b8 22.d5 a8 23.b5 a7± I was expecting the game to go this way and I thought I will be able to press from here as I have the better placed pieces. 22.c7 g722...e8 23.b6 e6? 24.c8+ e7?? 25.xc6+- This was one of the lines my mind was fantasizing about!! 23.a3 f6 24.b5 a8 25.xb7± Finally I managed to win material but I knew that I still have to play precisely to win. b426.c3 e6 27.g3 f6 28.b5 c8 29.f3 d3 30.d4+ f731.b3 e8 32.e2 b4 33.f4!? This was a multipurpose move. In some lines that I was calculating the black knight was coming to e5, in the others Black's ...e5 was also irritating, so this was aimed to stop them. c5 Now I felt that it was the right moment to exchange rooks. 34.b8+ d734...f7 35.f8+ xf8 36.e6++- 35.d8+ xd8 36.e6+ d7 37.xc5+ c6 38.e6 d539.f8+- I had seen this when exchanging rooks and I thought it should be easy for me from here. e4 40.xg6 d5 41.f5! I felt that this is the easiest way to win. xf5 42.f4 c7 43.f3 a644.e4+ e5 45.xh5 c5 46.f4 f5 47.exf5 xf5 48.g4+f6 49.g5+ g7 50.h5 e5 51.d5 xb3 52.e4 c5+ 53.f5Playing and winning on table 1 is always a good feeling!With this win I emerged as the sole leader at the end of 5 rounds with 5/5. It was very satisfying!1–0
Very close second: IM Vijayalaksmi Subbaraman (2314)
IM Vijayalaksmi Subbaraman also scored 9.5/11 and on any other day this would have been good enough to win the title. Before the last round she in fact had the better tie-break, and after winning her game she seemed to be champion. But it was not to be. The six-time National Premier winner had every reason to be disappointed.
On 16. September 2014 she sent the following four tweets:
"Life is full of Surprises...One among the surprises was my finishing second at the National Challengers....Not exactly a pleasant surprise though...Nevertheless happy abt gaining some ELO ratings..."
Like Nisha, Viji has been going through a rough patch.She can boast of three GM norms and at her peak she had a rating of 2485. Now she is at 2314. But the good news for her fans is that with her level of play, things can only get better from here. One can only wish that she quickly reaches 2500 and becomes the third woman in India to become a grandmaster after Humpy and Harika. Viji's favourite game in the tournament was her win over Padmini Rout.
Subbaraman, Vijayalakshmi2314–Padmini, Rout23541–0D7741st National Women Challengers (Nation9.113.09.2014
1.d4 f6 2.f3 g6 3.g3 d5 4.g2 g7 5.0-0 0-0 6.c4 dxc47.a3 c6 8.xc4 e6 9.b3 a5 10.b2 d5 11.a4 b412.e3 b6 13.fe5 xg2 14.xg2 d7 15.a3 xe5 16.dxe5c8 17.xb4 axb4 18.f4 d8 19.f3 d3 20.ab1 b821.fd1 d7 22.e2 d8 23.xd3 xd3 24.xd3 xd3 25.f3f6 26.e4 d8 27.b2 fxe5 28.fxe5 d1 29.d2 b1 30.d3e6 31.d2 b2 32.f3 h6 33.g4 c5 34.d2 g7 35.h3 h536.g5 h4 37.f4 c2 38.c4 f2+ 39.g4 f5 40.xh4 xe541.xb6 f1 42.d7 c4 43.bxc4 c3 44.f6+ f7 45.e4c1 46.g4 e5 47.c5 e7 48.f3 h1 49.b3 d7 50.xb4xh3+ 51.e2 c6 52.b6+ d5 53.f6+ c4 54.xe6 c755.e8 a5 56.c6 h2+ 57.f3 d5 58.xg6 c2 59.c7 xc760.xc7+ xc7 61.a5 e5 62.a6 f5 63.g8 a7 64.e4+ e565.e8+ d4 66.e61–0
Bronze medal winner Hinduja Reddy
Hinduja Reddy is 19-years-old, has a rating is deceptively modest 1867, but in a field with two IMs, six WGMs and one WIM, the girl from Andhra Pradesh finished third, scoring 8.5/11 and gaining 67 Elo points! She started off with 4.0/6, losing to WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty and WGM Bhakti Kulkarni. But then she scored 4.5/5 with wins over strong players such as Soumya Swaminathan and Nimmy George. It will be interesting to follow her results in the National Premier that is coming soon.
Top seed Padmini Rout
Fresh from her recent success at the Olympiad (gold medal on the fifth board), the top seed of the event and India's golden girl, WGM Padmini Rout (2354), things did not go smoothly. At the start of the tournament she drew against the talented Himli Parveen (1803) from Kerela. Then she lost to Vijayalakshmi in the ninth round, followed by a draw against Ivana Furtado in the tenth. With 7.0/10 she needed to beat Mahalakshmi (2048) with the white pieces in the last round to qualify for the premier. After failing to get an advantage in the opening she showed fighting qualities and won the game in a complex middlegame. Losing 23 points is not good news for Padmini, but she is happy that she qualified for the premier!
WGM Bhakti Kulkarni (2328) from Goa had a similar fate to Padmini. She was caught in the web of the lower rated players and really didn't get into any sort of rhythm. But champions can focus in crucial moments. Before the last round Bhakti had 7.0/10 and in the last round faced WGM Swati Ghate. She played with amazing calm and precision and qualified for the Premier. The above picture was taken a few minutes before the start of the last round. It takes a lot of courage and confidence to smile before such a crucial game!
Ivana Maria Furtado (2182) looks cute and greets you with a warm smile before the game. It is easy to assume that she will take it easy on the board. Quite the contrary! The 15-year old is turning into one of India's most promising youngsters. Her rating has been increasing steadily and she has beaten quite a few seasoned players such as IM Saravanan, IM Somak Palit etc. Her solidity can be seen from the fact that she didn't lose a single game in the tournament, scoring five wins and six draws. More aggression combined with her keen positional sense will definitely make her one of India's best!
The 16-year-old Pratyusha Bodda finished seventh. She had a rating of around 2150 a few months ago but the change of the K-factor to 40 did not work in her favour: in July 2014 she lost 91 Elo points in the National Junior tournament. But she is a good player, which she proved with a win against Aarthie Ramaswamy in the last round. A completely crazy game.
Pratyusha, Bodda2033–Ramaswamy, Aarthie20961–0E3541st National Women Challengers (Nation11.715.09.2014Sagar Shah
I was seeing this one live at the venue and the game was so complicated that it was just impossible to calculate all the variations in the head. 1.d4 f6 2.c4 e6 3.c3 b4 4.c2 d5 5.cxd5exd5 6.g5 c5 7.dxc5 h6 8.h4 g5 9.g3 e4 10.e3 a511.ge2 f5 12.e5 0-0 13.d4 e8!? The position is so complicated! One pin here, another pin there. The bishop on f5 is hanging and so is the one on e5. And now White decides to attack the black queen! 14.b3?!14.xb8 was better. 14...d814...a4! was the crucial move and would have given black the advantage after 15.xb815.d4 xc3 16.xf5 b5+-+ 15...xc3 16.xf5 e4+ 17.d1 axb8 15.xb8 d4?! I am sure that Black missed White's next move15...xc3!? 16.xf5 e4+ 17.e2 xb8 Would have given Black a totally fine position. 16.0-0-0!± And now it's all downhill. xc316...xb8 was relatively best but after 17.xd4 xc3 18.xf5xd1 19.c4!± White has a strong attack. 17.bxc3 xb8 18.xd4 g6 19.d3 g7 20.h4 xc521.xg6 fxg6 22.hxg5 hxg5 23.f3 g4 24.h4 e6 25.d5c8 26.f5+ gxf5 27.xf5 g6 28.e5+ f6 29.g5+ g630.e7+ g8 31.h7+ f8 32.xg61–0
After eight rounds the 2006 Women's National Premier winner, 34-year-old Swati Ghate, had 6.5/8. But two losses in the ninth and final round could have cost her the qualification. However, in the end the better tie-break secured her qualification for the Premier.
The National Premier 2014 will be held from 24th October to 5th November in Maharashtra. It will be a twelve player Round Robin event:
- Eight qualifiers from the National Challengers
- The best three rated women players of India
- The defending National Champion
Defending National Champion is Mary Ann Gomes, who won the Women's National Premier 2013.
WGM Mary Ann Gomes.
Mary Ann Gomes (2355) will probably be the top seed in the National Premier 2014, Koneru Humpy, Dronavalli Harika and Tania Sachdev most probably won't play.
Humpy and Harika will both play in the World Women's Championship, taking place from 11th October to 31st October, thus clashing with the National Premier. It seems as if the Indian officials have lost hope that Humpy and Harika will ever play in the National Premier. And Tania Sachdev won't start in the Premier because she will marry in the first week of November.
As the three top Indian players won't start in the premier, the eleven best in the Challengers qualified for the Premier.
Lakshmi Praneetha (2005) came back to chess after a long break to become an engineer and getting an MBA, but showed that she was still a potent force as she finished ninth.
Nimmy George (2118) from Kerela lost the last round against Hinduja Reddy but still qualified. Nimmy has made all her three WIM norms and crossed the 2200 barrier but that one foreign norm is missing in her kitty.
V Varshini (1987) of Tamil Nadu finished eleventh and qualified for her first Premier.
Amruta Mokal (right, 2070), the better half of the author of these lines, missed the qualification by a whisker when she finished twelfth. Kiran Manisha Mohanty (2231) on the left also did not qualify which, was really surprising because she was 6.0/7. In the last four rounds she scored just one point to end with 7.0/11. The funny thing was that she had the best Buchholz (76 points) in the tournament, in spite of the fact that she finished 17th.
The non-qualification of WGM Soumya Swaminathan (2352) was one of the big surprises of the tournament.
The National Women's Challengers 2014 took place in Mapusa, 13 kilometres north from the capital of Goa, Panaji. The tournament witnessed 128 participants coming from all over India.
The Peddem Sports Complex was the venue for the tournament
The complex had a good swimming pool...
... and a high quality athletic track.
The players greeting each other and having a chat before the round
But then the zero tolerance rule brought them to their seats!
Chief arbiter IA Paul Arokiaraj
FA Anandh Babu VL made sure that all games were broadcasted live.
Deputy chief arbiter IA Ravikumar having a light moment with a young kid
These three girls travelled all the way from the state of Manipur to play in Goa. Do you know how far that is?
Nearly 3.400 kms!
Concentration
Battle of generations!
Women chess in India is surely improving. However, the prize money in such National events can be best described as disappointing.
IApart from the top five the best Indian women players took part in the event. For that, the total prize fund of Rs 1,25,000 ($2080) and a first prize of Rs 30,000 ($500) just seems not to be adequate.
With heroes such as Anand and Humpy at the top and the win of bronze at the Olympiad, chess is booming in India. If the prize money of such national tournaments were improved, it will surely motivate more women players to take up this sport as a career option.
Links
You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.
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