Padmini Upsets Danielian 1.5-0.5

By Arvind Aaron

Padmini Rout, seed No.40, upset Elina Danielian of Armenia, seed 25 in the second game of round one to win her match 1.5-0.5 and advance to the second round of the World Women’s Chess Championship at Tehran on Feb 12, 2017.

A draw with black and a win with the white pieces left Padmini, the Odisha girl in the second round of the 64-player world chess championship for women that is being organised by FIDE.

India’s title hope, Dronavalli Harika drew with the white pieces to have the score tied at 1-1 against lower rated Akter Liza Shamima (Ban). They will decide the match in the tie-breaks. Of the 32 round one matches, 21 were concluded and eleven will be decided in the tie-breaks.

Favourites Ju Wenjun (Chn), Anna Muzychuk (Ukr), Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus), Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul), Nino Batsiashvili (Geo) and Valentina Gunina (Rus) were 2-0 sweeps