World Women`s Chess Championship Nalchik 2008 : Round 1

The Presidents of the World and Russian Chess Federations were there, the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and the Kabardino-Balkaria President. But not the Georgian players, and some international participants, who did not attend due to the Russian-Georgian conflict. They lost their games by default. Otherwise most of the top seeds won their first games comfortably.

The Women's World Championship 2008 is taking place from August 28th to September 18th in Nalchik, in the Kabardino-Balkaria region of Russia. 64 players were eligible to play in the knock-out event, which has a prize fund of US $450,000. Due to the tensions in the region the Georgian players and a few others decided not to participate.

After the pre-tournament turmoil, in which the Georgian and other players protested and the FIDE President appealed to them and then to the Georgian president ("Do not mix politics and sport") we had to wait until the start of the first round to see who would turn up and who wouldn't. All the Georgians – Chiburdanidze, Gvetadze, Javakhishvili, Khukhashvili, Khurtsidze, Lomineishvili – were absent, as were a few others: Tea Bosboom Lanchava, Karen Zapata, Marie Sebag, Irina Krush and Ekaterina Korbut. They all lost their first game by default.

In the following table we can see that the top seeds generally won their games. The first upset is to be found on board 13, where 13th seed Natalia Zhukova of Ukraine lost to 52nd seed Katherine Rohonyan of the US. The next: 16th seed Elisabeth Paehtz, former Girl's Junior World Champion from Germany, lost to 49th seed Ilaha Kadimova of Azerbaijan. The defaulted players are shown in red.

Bd	SNo	Player	Nat.	Result	Player	Nat.
1	1-64	Xu, Yuhua	CHN	1-0	Solomons, Anzel	RSA
2	63-2	Alaa El Din, Yorsa	EGY	0-1	Koneru, Humpy	IND
3	3-62	Hou, Yifan	CHN	1-0	Khaled, Mona	EGY
4	61-4	Zapata, Karen	PER	-+	Stefanova, Antoaneta	BUL
5	5-60	Cramling, Pia	SWE	1-0	Sanchez Castillo, Sarai	VEN
6	59-6	Gasik, Anna	POL	+-	Sebag, Marie	FRA
7	7-58	Zhao, Xue	CHN	1-0	Zuriel, Marisa	ARG
8	57-8	Muminova, Nafisa	UZB	0-1	Kosintseva, Tatjana	RUS
9	9-56	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	RUS	1-0	Pourkashiyan, Atousa	IRI
10	55-10	Golubenko, Valentina	CRO	0-1	Cmilyte, Viktorija	LTU
11	11-54	Muzychuk, Anna	SLO	1-0	Velcheva, Maria	BUL
12	53-12	Zakurdjaeva, Irina	RUS	0-1	Ruan, Lufei	CHN
13	13-52	Zhukova, Natalia	UKR	0-1	Rohonyan, Katherine	USA
14	51-14	Nguyen, Thi Thanh An	VIE	+-	Chiburdanidze, Maya	GEO
15	15-50	Hoang Thanh Trang	HUN	1-0	Arribas Robaina, Maritza	CUB
16	49-16	Kadimova, Ilaha	AZE	1-0	Paehtz, Elisabeth	GER
17	17-48	Ushenina, Anna	UKR	1-0	Le Thanh Tu	VIE
18	47-18	Foisor, Sabina-Francesca	ROM	1/2	Socko, Monika	POL
19	19-46	Krush, Irina	USA	-+	Sedina, Elena	ITA
20	45-20	Zhang Jilin	CHN	1/2	Gaponenko, Inna	UKR
21	21-44	Javakhishvili, Lela	GEO	-+	Amura, Claudia	ARG
22	43-22	Nebolsina, Vera	RUS	0-1	Harika, Dronavalli	IND
23	23-42	Kosintseva, Nadezhda	RUS	1-0	Mohota, Nisha	IND
24	41-24	Gvetadze, Sopio	GEO	- -	Korbut, Ekaterina	RUS
25	25-40	Zatonskih, Anna	USA	+ -	Bosboom Lanchava, Tea	NED
26	39-26	Kachiani-Gersinska, K	GER	1/2	Shen, Yang	CHN
27	27-38	Mkrtchian, Lilit	ARM	1/2	Moser, Eva	AUT
28	37-28	Tan Zongyi	CHN	1/2	Tania, Sachdev	IND
29	29-36	Bojkovic, Natasa	SRB	1/2	Ju, Wenjun	CHN
30	35-30	Mongontuul, Bathuyang	MGL	1-0	Rajlich, Iweta	POL
31	31-34	Lomineishvili, Maia	GEO	- -	Khukhashvili, Sopiko	GEO
32	33-32	Matveeva, Svetlana	RUS	+ -	Khurtsidze, Nino	GEO

Schedule :

Thursday	28	August	Opening Ceremony/Player's Meeting
Friday	29	August	Round 1, game 1
Saturday	30	August	Round 1, game 2
Sunday	31	August	Tiebreaks
Monday	01	September	Round 2, game 1
Tuesday	02	September	Round 2, game 2
Wednesday	03	September	Tiebreaks
Thursday	04	September	Round 3, game 1
Friday	05	September	Round 3, game 2
Saturday	06	September	Tiebreaks
Sunday	07	September	Round 4, game 1
Monday	08	September	Round 4, game 2
Tuesday	09	September	Tiebreaks
Wednesday	10	September	Round 5, game 1
Thursday	11	September	Round 5, game 2
Friday	12	September	Tiebreaks
Saturday	13	September	Free Day
Sunday	14	September	Round 6, game 1
Monday	15	September	Round 6, game 2
Tuesday	16	September	Round 6, game 3
Wednesday	17	September	Round 6, game 4
Thursday	18	September	Tiebreaks/Closing Ceremony

Courtesy : www.chessbase.com

Official WebSite : http://nalchik2008.fide.com/

Champions League Chess Tournament Round 8:Tania Sachdev takes sole lead.

The tournament has finally found a sole leader. Defending Champion Woman Grandmaster Tania Sachdev of Indian Airlines today beat P Priya of Tamil Nadu to take lead while the top two boards witnessed fighting draws at the end of the 8th round of the 34th Women’s National A Chess Championship organized by Symbiosis Spa Chess School at Symbiosis Center for Health Care Campus, Range Hills Road, Kirkee, Pune. Five players share the second spot on 5.5 points

P Priya playing White chose the exchange variation of the Spanish Opening against Asian Individual Women’s Champion Tania. Priya made a questionable 8th move after which her pawn structure was severely weakened. Tania slowly maneuvered her pieces to build up pressure on White’s weak f5 pawn and soon gobbled it up. After a couple of exchanges the game steered into a Rook pawn ending where Tania used her advantageous Rook position to win another pawn and forced Priya to resign.

Game Ananysis

P, Priya vs. Sachdev, Tania



1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. O-O f6 6. d4 exd4 7. Nxd4 Bd6 8. Nf5 Bxf5 9. exf5 Qd7 10. Re1 Be5 11. Qh5 Qf7 12. Qd1 Ne7 13. a4 O-O 14. Qg4 Rad8 15. c3 Rd5 16. g3 Bd6 17. Nd2 Nxf5 18. Ne4 Qg6 19. Qe2 Kh8 20. Nxd6 cxd6 21. Bf4 h6 22. Kh1 Qf7 23. Qe4 g5 24. c4 Rc5 25. Bxd6 Nxd6 26. Qd4 Rf5 27. Qxd6 Rxf2 28. Qd4 Rc2 29. Rac1 Rxc1 30. Rxc1 Qe7 31. Rd1 Re8 32. a5 Kg7 33. Qg4 Kg6 34. h4 Qe4 35. Qxe4 Rxe4 36. hxg5 hxg5 37. b3 Re3 38. b4 Rxg3 39. Rd7 Rh3 40. Kg2 Rh7 41. Rd1 Kf5 42. Rf1 Ke5 43. Re1 Kd4 0-1


On the top board WGM Swati Ghate of LIC, playing White chose the Be2 variation in the Sicilian Classical Opening but Harika transposed the game into Sicilian Dragon Classical variation. Swati did not get much out of the opening and very soon Harika maneuvered her Queen to a strong position. She then started to push her pawns on the Queenside to create a breakthrough. Swati sensed the danger and started a counter attack on Harika’s King, also sacrificing an exchange in the process. Harika did not play the most accurate moves after that and Swati was relieved to get a perpetual check and force a draw.

ary Ann Gomes played the Rosolimo variation from the White side of the Sicilian against Kiran Mohanty. Mary had an advantage in the Rook-Bishop endgame that arose and even got a deadly passed pawn on 6th rank. But she failed to find the best moves. After the Bishops got exchanged the game reached a Rook Pawn ending where Kiran played accurately to force a draw.

WGM R Aarthie playing White side of the Sicilian scheveningen against Pune’s WIM Soumya Swaminathan went for a typical attack against Soumya’s king. Soumya created counter play in the center and established her Knight on the strong e4 square. In the complex position where a small mistake would prove costly Aarthie blundered an important pawn and literally handed over Soumya the full point.

Amruta Mokal playing Black against WGM Nisha Mohota played inaccurately in the opening and then blundered a piece to give Nisha a simple win. Nimmy George beat Pon. Krithika in an Alekhine’s defense game. Krithika playing Black lost an exchange early in the game and Nimmy converted her advantage in the endgame. WGM Eesha Karavade finally scored a much desired victory. She beat her city-mate Anuprita Patil quite comfortably from the White side of the Slav Defense.

With three rounds to go the tournament is still wide open and as the top three finishers will make it to the Indian Olympiad team it is time for some exciting and fighting chess in the remaining rounds.

Results-: round 8

Swati Ghate 5.5 drew with Harika Dronavalli 5.5;
Mary Ann Gomes 5.5 drew with Kiran Manisha Mohanty 5.5;
P Priya 4.5 lost to Tania Sachdev 6;
Aarthie Ramaswamy 4 lost to Soumya Swaminathan 5.5;
Nisha Mohota 5 beat Amruta Mokal 4;
Nimmy George 5 beat Pon. Krithika 4;
Eesha Karavade 4.5 beat Anuprita Patil 3.5;
Divyasri Ch 4.5 beat S Nabeela Farheen 3.5;
Padmini Rout 4 beat Rucha Pujari 3;
S Harini 3 lost to Sai Meera 4;
P Uthra 4 beat Swati Mohota 3;
Dhyani Dave 3 drew with R Preethi 3;
S Athirai 2.5 lost to M R Sangeetha 3;
C H Sevitha had a bye

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Rank	SNo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts	BH.	RtgØ
1	3	WGM	Tania Sachdev	2413	IND	6	34½	2269
2	6	WGM	Swathi Ghate	2316	IND	5½	34½	2270
3	7	WIM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2263	IND	5½	34	2276
4	1	IM	Harika Dronavalli	2480	IND	5½	34	2275
5	8	WIM	Gomes Mary Ann	2262	IND	5½	32½	2208
6	9	WIM	Soumya Swaminathan	2244	IND	5½	31	2230
7	2	WGM	Mohota Nisha	2416	IND	5	32½	2213
8	12		Nimmy A G	2196	IND	5	29½	2166
9	4	WGM	Karavade Eesha	2331	IND	4½	35½	2265
10	15		Priya P	2129	IND	4½	31	2229
11	25		Divyasri Ch	2050	IND	4½	24½	2102
12	5	WGM	Ramaswamy Aarthie	2317	IND	4	35½	2258
13	11	WFM	Meera Sai	2205	IND	4	35½	2248
14	13		Amrutha Mokal	2159	IND	4	31½	2184
15	14	WFM	Pon N Krithika	2140	IND	4	31½	2177
16	10		Padmini Rout	2226	IND	4	27½	2166
17	24		Uthra P	2055	IND	4	22	2072
18	22		Anuprita Patil	2060	IND	3½	32½	2224
19	20		Syed Nabeela Farheen	2093	IND	3½	28½	2129
20	23		Harini S	2060	IND	3	28½	2153
21	21	WFM	Pujari Rucha	2061	IND	3	27½	2128
22	17		Sangeetha M R	2118	IND	3	27½	2126
23	26	WFM	Dave Dhyani	2002	IND	3	27	2109
24	18		Swati Mohota	2112	IND	3	26	2089
25	16		Preethi R	2125	IND	3	25	2100
26	27		Athirai S	2000	IND	2½	22½	2091
27	28		Savetha C H	1968	IND	2½	21½	1959
28	19		Baisakhi Das	2101	IND	1	22½	2090

34th Women’s National A Chess Championship of India

5 Share lead after round 7

7 rounds gone in the Women’s National A and the the tournament is yet to find a sole leader in any of those. This speaks of the strength of this edition of the 34th Women’s National A Chess Championship organised by Symbiosis Spa Chess School at Symbiosis Center for Health Care Campus, Range Hills Road, Kirkee, Pune.

IM Dronavalli Harika played in an attacking mode right from the beginning against WIM Kiran Monisha Mohanty but yet could not win. When she gave up a pawn in the middle game it almost seemed like a ‘déjà vu’ of the first round where both players had castled on opposite sides. It seemed the same would repeat today but Kiran managed to hold a draw.

Leaders: Harika Dronavalli , Kiran Mohanty , Swati Ghate, Tania Sachdev, Mary Ann Gomes

Results-: round 7

Harika Dronavalli 5 drew with Kiran Mohanty 5;

Swati Ghate 5 drew with Tania Sachdev 5;

Ramaswamy Aarthie 4 lost to Mary Ann Gomes 5;

Soumya Swaminathan 4.5 drew with Nisha Mohota 4;

P Priya 4.5 beat Eesha Karavade 3.5;

Amruta Mokal 4 beat Padmini Rout 3;

Sai Meera 3 lost to Pon. Krithika 4;

S Harini 3 lost to Nimmy George;

Anuprita Patil 3.5 drew with S Nabeela Farheen 3.5;

Rucha Pujari 3 drew with Divyasri Ch 3.5;

R Preethi 2.5 drew with S Athirai 2.5;

Swati Mohota 3 beat M R Sangeetha 2;

Baisakhi Das 1 lost to P Uthra 3;

Dhyani Dave 2.5 drew with C H Savetha 1.5

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Rank	SNo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts	BH.	RtgØ
1	3	WGM	Tania Sachdev	2413	IND	5	26½	2289
2	6	WGM	Swathi Ghate	2316	IND	5	26	2240
3	1	IM	Harika Dronavalli	2480	IND	5	25	2269
4	7	WIM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2263	IND	5	24½	2278
5	8	WIM	Gomes Mary Ann	2262	IND	5	24	2200
6	9	WIM	Soumya Swaminathan	2244	IND	4½	23½	2218
7	15		Priya P	2129	IND	4½	23	2203
8	5	WGM	Ramaswamy Aarthie	2317	IND	4	26	2260
9	2	WGM	Mohota Nisha	2416	IND	4	24½	2221
10	14	WFM	Pon N Krithika	2140	IND	4	24	2174
11	12		Nimmy A G	2196	IND	4	23½	2170
12	13		Amrutha Mokal	2159	IND	4	23½	2151
13	4	WGM	Karavade Eesha	2331	IND	3½	28	2294
14	22		Anuprita Patil	2060	IND	3½	25	2209
15	20		Syed Nabeela Farheen	2093	IND	3½	21	2140
16	25		Divyasri Ch	2050	IND	3½	18½	2103
17	11	WFM	Meera Sai	2205	IND	3	28	2275
18	10		Padmini Rout	2226	IND	3	23	2181
19	23		Harini S	2060	IND	3	22	2145
20	21	WFM	Pujari Rucha	2061	IND	3	21	2114
21	18		Swati Mohota	2112	IND	3	19	2094
22	24		Uthra P	2055	IND	3	15	2066
23	16		Preethi R	2125	IND	2½	19½	2114
24	26	WFM	Dave Dhyani	2002	IND	2½	19	2107
25	27		Athirai S	2000	IND	2½	17½	2088
26	17		Sangeetha M R	2118	IND	2	21	2144
27	28		Savetha C H	1968	IND	1½	18	2067
28	19		Baisakhi Das	2101	IND	1	18	2090

Kiran Mohanty defeats Eesha Karavade

Kiran Monisha Mohanty pulled off an upset win over WGM Eesha Karavde while Swati Ghate beat Nisha Mohota to join Tania Sachdev and Dronavalli Harika in lead at the end of the 6^th round of the 34th Women’s National A Chess Championship organised by Symbiosis Spa Chess School at Symbiosis Center for Health Care Campus, Range Hills Road, Kirkee, Pune.

Asian Individual Women’s Champion Tania and Asian Zonal Women’s Champion Harika probably showed mutual respect and employed the ‘draw with the best and beat the rest’ theory when they agreed to share the point after just 8 moves at the halfway stage of the tournament. But the same theory did not work for Pune’s WGM Eesha Karavade who after drawing her games against WGMs in the last three consecutive rounds lost to a lower seeded rival Kiran Mohanty. Mohanty has so far has had a very impressive run. She also beat WGM Swati Ghate in the third round. Today in a Spanish Anti-Marshal variation Eesha playing Black sacrificed a pawn which according to Mohanty was not the right thing to do. Kiran maneuvered her pieces to attacking positions and when the moment was right struck some deadly blows which left Eesha with no options but to resign. WGM Nisha Mohota blundered a pawn against Swati Ghate and after that Swati made no mistake to bring home the full point.

Padmini Rout erred from the White side of the Sicilian Rauzer variation against WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy. According to Aarthie Padmini’s 18^th move Bd3 was not such a good try for advantage while her 21^st move was a gross blunder. Aarthie sacrificed material and took great advantage of Padmini’s exposed King position to win a Queen and soon the game. WGM Mary Ann Gomes beat Sai Meera after both players made a lot of errors in mutual time trouble. WIM Soumya Swaminathan made good use of the opposite coloured Bishops position on the board to create undefendable mating threats and win the game against Nimmy George.

Pune’s Amruta Mokal drew with Ch. Divyashri while Anuprita Patil held Pon. Krithika to a draw.

Games

Results:Round6

Tania Sachdev 4.5 drew with Harika Dronavalli 4.5;
Nisha Mohota 3.5 lost to Swati Ghate 4.5;
Kiran Manisha Mohanty 4.5 beat Eesha Karavade 3.5;
Padmini Rout 3 lost to Ramaswamy Aarthie 4;
Mary Ann Gomes 4 beat Sai Meera Ravi 3;
Nimmy George 3 lost to Soumya Swaminathan 4;
Divyasri Ch 3 drew with Amruta Mokal 3;
Pon. Krithika 3 drew with Anuprita Patil 3;
Rucha Pujari 2.5 lost to P Priya 3.5;
S Nabeela Farheen 3 beat R Preethi 2;
M R Sangeetha 2 lost to S Harini 3;
Uthra P 2 drew with Dhyani Dave 2;
Savetha C H 1 lost to Swati Mohota 2;
S Athirai 2 beat Baisakhi Das 1