PANJIM: IM Nisha Mohota of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB), a former National Women Premier Champion clinched the 41st National Women Challengers chess championship organized by Goa Chess Association (GCA) on behalf of the All India Chess Federation, at Peddem sports complex, Peddem, Mapusa, on Monday.
Overnight joint leaders, IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman of Air India and IM Nisha Mohota of PSPB won their respective games with Neha Singh of Bihar and Lakshmi Praneetha of Andhra Pradesh (AP) and the winner had to be decided on tie-break as both the players scored equal 9.5 points each from 11 rounds.
IM Nisha managed to win the gold medal due to better tie-break and IM Vijalakshmi had to settle for a silver medal.
Hinduja Reddy of AP won the bronze medal as she scored 8.5 points. Nisha and Vijee had a good tournament. The duo did not lose a single game throughout the tournament.
Both the Goans, last years National Premier players WGM Bhakti Kulkarni and WIM Ivana Furtado won their respective games with WGM Swati Ghate of LIC and Smarki Mohanty of Odisha to qualify for Women National Premier chess championship.
IM Vijayalakshmi, the former National Champion, in the queen pawn opening which got converted into sicilian accelerated dragon variation, did not give any advantage to Neha and became queen up which forced Neha to resign after 33 moves.
In the caro kann opening, IM Nisha Mohota also easily meted Lakskmi Praneetha in 40 moves. Hinduja Reddy of AP defeated Nimmy George of Kerala.
Following players will qualify for Women National Premier chess championship: IM Nisha Mohota, (9.5 points) of PSPB, IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman (9.5 points) Air India, Hinduja Reddy (8.5 points) of AP, WGM Pamini Raut of Odisha, WGM Bhakti Kulkarni (8 points) Goa, WIM Ivana Furtado (8 points) Goa, Pratusha Bodda (8 points) AP and WGM Swati Ghate (7.5 points) LIC.
WGM Padmini Raut of Odisha defeated M Mahalakshmi of Tamil Nadu. Pratusha Bodda of AP defeated WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy of Air India.
Lakshmi Praneetha of AP, Nimmy George of Kerala, WFM Varshini V of Tamil Nadu, Mruta Mokal of Maharashtra, Lasya G of AP, Neha Singh of Bihar, Sunasakta Satapathy of Orisa, WFM Riya Savant of Goa, WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanthy of LIC, WGM Soumya Swaminathan of PSPB, WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy of Air India, and Bala Kannamma of Tamil Nadu finished ninth to 20th respectively.
Dilip Parulekar, Tourism Minister was the chief guest and gave away the prizes in the presence of Dilip Salgaocar, chairman of Geno Pharmaceuticals; Sandeep Falari, chairperson of Mapusa Municipal Council; Sudhanshu Jha, Commissioner of Income tax (Appeals), Goa; Yeshwant Tawade, Director of Directorate of Sports and Youth Affairs;
Vinay Tendulkar, President of GCA; Kishor Bandekar, Joint Secretary AICF and Secretary of GCA; Bruno Coutinho, Joint Director SAG and Ramdas Sawant, Treasurer of GCA.
