Padmini Rout Joins Leaders

Padmini Rout Joins Leaders – By Arvind Aaron

Padmini Rout of Bhubaneswar joined leaders with a victory over Bodda Pratyusha in the fifth round of the National Woman Premier which is happening at Kolkata. It is organised by the Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy.

The Union Bank of India sponsored National Women Premier is a 12-player all-play-all. Six rounds remain to be played. The event comes to a close on September 5, 2013. After five rounds, Swati Ghate, Mary Ann Gomes, Soumya Swaminathan and Padmini are leading with 3.5/5 points.

Soumya Swaminathan and Swati Ghate fought a rook and minor piece ending to repeat and draw in 53 moves. Both come from Pune but fought a long game.

Top seed Tania Sachdev recovered after the double defeat. In round five, she cleaned up the queen side pawns of Michelle Catherina to win a simple queen ending in 42 moves.

Padmini’s 49-move win over Pratyusha was easily the best game of the day. Facing a big attack, Padmini sacrificed a rook for knight to win an ending with her advanced king.

In the fourth round, Ivana Furtado had a big fish when she downed top seed Tania Sachdev with a back rank tactic to win in 31 moves.

The results (round five): Soumya Swaminathan (PSPB) 3.5 drew with Swati Ghate (LIC) 3.5; Tania Sachdev (AI) 2.5 bt Michelle Catherina (TN) 0.5; G.K. Monnisha (TN) 1.5 drew with Ivana Furtado (Goa) 2.5; Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa) 2.5 drew with Mary Ann Gomes (WB) 3.5; Kiran Mohanty (Odi) 2 lost to Nisha Mohota (PSPB) 2; Bodda Pratyusha (AP) 2.5 lost to Padmini Rout (Odi) 3.5.

The results (round four): Swati Ghate drew with B Pratyusha; Padmini Rout drew with Kiran Mohanty; Nisha Mohota lost to Bhakti Kulkarni; Mary Ann Gomes bt G.K. Monnisha; Ivana Furtado bt Tania Sachdev; Michelle Catherina lost to Soumya Swaminathan.