Padmini Rout Held To A Draw

Padmini Rout Held To A Draw
By Arvind Aaron

Bhakti Kulkarni of Goa held leader Padmini Rout of Odisha to a draw in the ninth round of the National Women’s Premier Chess Championship at Sangli, Maharashtra.  After 53 moves, Padmini offered and got a draw from Bhakti Kulkarni. The players had a rook, bishop of same colour and one pawn when a draw was agreed upon.

Mary Ann Gomes and S Vijayalakshmi won using their extra pawns on the queen side to move closer to Padmini Rout. Mary Ann moved to seven points while Padmini is leading with 7.5 points. Two rounds remain to be played. Padmini Rout plays Hinduja Reddy and Nimmy George. Mary Ann plays Ivana Furtado and Pratyusha. If Padmini wins both games, she will become the 18th player ever to win the prestigious National Women’s Premier Championship.

The 17 who won atleast one thus far are:
01 Vasanti Khadilkar (Mah)
02 Jayashree Khadilkar (Mah)
03 Rohini Khadilkar (Mah)
04 Bhagyashree Thipsay (Mah)
05 Saritha Reddy (TN)
06 Anupama Gokhale (Mah)
07 S Vijayalakshmi (TN)
08 Mrunalini Kunte (Mah)
09 Aarthie Ramaswamy (TN)
10 Koneru Humpy (AP)
11 Nisha Mohota (WB)
12 Swati Ghate (Mah)
13 Tania Sachdev (Del)
14 Kruttika Nadig (Mah)
15 Dronavalli Harika (AP)
16 Soumya Swaminathan (Mah)
17 Mary Ann Gomes (WB)

The standings (after round nine): 1 Padmini Rout (Odi) 7.5; 2 Mary Ann Gomes (WB) 7; 3-4. Nisha Mohota (WB), S Vijayalakshmi (TN) 6 each; 5-7. Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa), Nimmy George (Ker), Ivana Furtado (Goa) 5 each; 8 B Pratyusha (Tel) 4; 9 K Lakshmi Praneetha (AP) 3; 10-11. V Varshini (TN), Swati Ghate (Mah) 2 each; 12 Hinduja Reddy (Tel) 1.5 each.