Swati Ghate Leads National Premier

Swati Ghate Leads National Premier
By Arvind Aaron

Former Indian women’s champion Swati Ghate of LIC, Pune is leading the Ramratna National Women’s Premier Chess Championship that is taking place at Kolkata.

After two rounds, in the 12-player all-play-all Rs.6 lakhs prize money event, Swati Ghate is on full score having posted two wins, one over Nutakki Priyanka (AP) and another over former champion Tania Sachdev (Del).

International Arbiter R Srivatsan of Chennai who is the chief arbiter for this important event said the WGM norm will be 8.5 and WIM norm will be six points in this event.

Swati Ghate played the king’s Indian attack against Priyanka and won pawns at will to record a 41-move win in a minor piece ending. Priyanka resigned when she was three pawns down for no compensation.

Fast rising star, R Vaishali, the World Under-14 champion held top seed and defending champion Padmini Rout to a creditable 48-move draw in a level bishop ending.

Games cannot be agreed draw in under 25 moves and even in case of a repetition, they have to seek the permission of the arbiter.

The event is organised by the Dispora Times and Bengal Chess Association and the Tournament Director is Atanu Lahiri. The venue is the Bengal Gallery, Kolkata. This event runs from Nov 11-24, 2015.

Standings after two rounds: 1 WGM Swati Ghate (LIC) 2/2; 2-3. IM Padmini Rout (Odi), WGM Soumya Swaminathan (PSPB) 1.5 each; 4-5. WFM V Varshini (TN), WIM Bodda Pratyusha (AP) 1/1 each; 6 N Priyanka (AP) 1/2; 7-8. WFM R Vaishali (TN), WIM P Michelle Catherina (TN) 0.5/1 each; 9-10. IM Tania Sachdev (AI), WGM Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa) 0.5/2 each; 11-12. K Priyanka (TN), Neha Singh (Bih) 0/2 each.