Exciting chess in first three rounds of Velammal-AICF WGM Round Robin

by Sagar Shah - 30/01/2019

While strong male players are constantly being churned out from the country, women's chess has been a matter of worry for the current administration of AICF. In order to set this problem straight they have decided to seriously invest in bringing world class international players to India and give a chance to the young talents to fight it out against them in Round Robin format. The six Indian girls who have got a chance in the Velammal-AICF WGM Round Robin tournament are Michelle Catherina, Varshini, Divya Deshmukh, Aakanksha Hagawane, Saloni Sapale and Chandreyee Hajra. The international players are Nakhbayeva, Munguuntuul, Osmak, Uuriinuya, Babiy and Franco. Olga Babiy from Ukraine is leading the event with 3.0/3. On her heels is India's future in women's chess WIM Divya Deshmukh. An illustrated report with pictures from Chennai by Niklesh Jain.

Staying true to their aim of powering women's chess in the country, the AICF has organized the Velammal - AICF International Women GM Round Robin Tournament 2019. This is the third such event that the national chess federation has organized in a year now, the first one being in Mumbai in June, the second one in Hyderabad in August and now this one in Chennai. The idea is to give six of our talented young WIMs a chance to fight it out against International IMs and WGMs and try to score their WGM or IM norms. The title sponsors of the event are Velammal institute.

Starting rank list of players

No.		Name	FideID	FED	Rtg	sex
9	IM	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	4900758	MGL	2428	w
12	IM	Osmak Iulija	14101602	UKR	2394	w
1	IM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	13704788	KAZ	2336	w
2	WGM	Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh	4900227	MGL	2314	w
3	WGM	Babiy Olga	14117258	UKR	2275	w
4	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	25014510	IND	2259	w
8	WIM	Sapale Saloni	5085527	IND	2198	w
6	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	5005736	IND	2175	w
10	WIM	Varshini V	5091241	IND	2171	w
7	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	35006916	IND	2168	w
11	WIM	Franco Valencia Angela	4403070	COL	2107	w
5	WIM	Chandreyee Hajra	5056535	IND	1925	w

One could say that there are six Indian players and six international, but at the same time the penultimate seed in the event is Angela Franco. Although from Colombia, she is now married to ChessBase India Hindi's editor-in-chief Niklesh Jain and lives in Katni, Madhya Pradesh. So can we say seven Indians and five international players?!

Sitting (from left to right): Lulija Osmak (2394), Olga Babiy (2275), Guliskhan Nakhbayeva (2336), Batkhuyag Munguntuul (2428), Uurtsaikh Uuriintuya (2314) and Angela Franco (2107). Standing (from left to right): Catherina Michelle (2175), V. Varshini (2171), Saloni Sapale (2198), Chandreyee Hajra (1925), Divya Deshmukh (2168) and Aakanksha Hagawane (2259) | Photo: Niklesh Jain

It's nice to see so much excitement among the youngsters of Chennai for this unique event | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Former AICF Secretary V. Hariharan | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Stephen Balsamy, the tournament director, lights the lamp | Photo: Niklesh Jain

WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy, the former World Youth Champion and one of India's finest chess players in the past, was a guest at the opening ceremony. She is welcomed by the chief arbiter of the tournament Bhuvana Sai | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The tournament is opened by Aarthie and the top seed of the tournament Batkhuyag Munguntuul. Sicilian it is! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The International players are all felicitated and welcomed with shawls and garlands! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Indians surely do know how to welcome their guests! | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Three rounds have been played at the event. 28th of January was the first round and there were two rounds on 29th. That's how things look after three rounds:

Ranking crosstable after Round 3

Rk.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4
1	WGM	Babiy Olga	2275	UKR	*					1			1	1			3,0	0,0	3,50	3	1
2	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	2168	IND		*	½				1	1					2,5	0,0	3,50	2	1
3	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	2175	IND		½	*	½				1					2,0	0,5	3,25	1	1
4	IM	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	2428	MGL			½	*	½							1	2,0	0,5	2,25	1	0
5	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	2259	IND				½	*	0			1				1,5	0,0	2,00	1	0
6	WIM	Varshini V	2171	IND	0				1	*						½	1,5	0,0	1,75	1	0
7	IM	Osmak Iulija	2394	UKR		0					*			1	½		1,5	0,0	1,25	1	1
8	WIM	Sapale Saloni	2198	IND		0	0					*				1	1,0	0,0	0,50	1	1
	WIM	Franco Valencia Angela	2107	COL	0				0				*		1		1,0	0,0	0,50	1	1
10	IM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	2336	KAZ	0						0			*	1		1,0	0,0	0,50	1	0
11	WGM	Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh	2314	MGL							½		0	0	*		0,5	0,0	0,75	0	0
	WIM	Chandreyee Hajra	1925	IND				0		½		0				*	0,5	0,0	0,75	0	0

Olga Babiy has started off with three wins out of three games by beating V. Varshini, Angela Franco and Guliskhan Nakhbayeva.

Varshini got a completely minus position in the Sicilian Najdorf against Olga Babiy in just a few moves | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Babiy vs Varshini, Round 1

It started as the Najdorf and within 15 moves White has a completely dominating position. How did this happen? Let's find out:

The youngest participant in the event, Divya Deshmukh is on 2.5/3 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Lulija Osmak vs Divya Deshmukh. Round 2

White's last move in this position was Rh3xh7?!! Divya didn't really understand what was going on! She picked up the d7 rook, and then the h7 rook with the queen! A free rook.

But Divya also showcased some high quality chess in round three when she got the better of Saloni Sapale in nice positional style.

Divya vs Saloni, Round 3

How should White continue in this position?

It was clear to Divya that her knight on f3 was not well placed and needed to be rerouted. She played Ne1! which was a fine move. The knight will come to e3 via g2 and this led to a clearly better position for Divya.

Perhaps the most interesting game from the point of view of unusual moves has been Varshini against Aakanksha | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Varshini vs Aakanksha, round 2

The rook enters the position with Re8! Usually such blows are finishing moves, but Aakanksha kept her cool and found Qc7!

Varshini didn't relent and played her knight to c8, which forced Black to sacrifice her queen with Rxe8. The position was around even, but then Black got a great chance...

...Black to play and win!

It was a disappointing defeat for Aakanksha. Full credit to Varshini for playing exciting chess! Check out what Hagawane had missed:

The biggest blunder of the tournament was played by Chandreyee Hajra in her second round encounter against Munguntuul:

Munguntuul vs Hajra, round 2

Hajra has just played her pawn to c5. What did she miss?

Press officer RR Vasudevan with the hoardings dedicated to individual players | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Excellent rooms and facilities provided to the players | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Results of Round 1:

Bo.	No.	FED	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	FED	Rtg	No.
1	1	KAZ	2336	IM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	0 - 1	IM	Osmak Iulija	UKR	2394	12
2	2	MGL	2314	WGM	Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh	0 - 1	WIM	Franco Valencia Angela	COL	2107	11
3	3	UKR	2275	WGM	Babiy Olga	1 - 0	WIM	Varshini V	IND	2171	10
4	4	IND	2259	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	½ - ½	IM	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	MGL	2428	9
5	5	IND	1925	WIM	Chandreyee Hajra	0 - 1	WIM	Sapale Saloni	IND	2198	8
6	6	IND	2175	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	½ - ½	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	IND	2168	7

Results of Round 2:

Bo.	No.	FED	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	FED	Rtg	No.
1	12	UKR	2394	IM	Osmak Iulija	0 - 1	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	IND	2168	7
2	8	IND	2198	WIM	Sapale Saloni	0 - 1	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	IND	2175	6
3	9	MGL	2428	IM	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	1 - 0	WIM	Chandreyee Hajra	IND	1925	5
4	10	IND	2171	WIM	Varshini V	1 - 0	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	IND	2259	4
5	11	COL	2107	WIM	Franco Valencia Angela	0 - 1	WGM	Babiy Olga	UKR	2275	3
6	1	KAZ	2336	IM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	1 - 0	WGM	Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh	MGL	2314	2

Results of Round 3:

Bo.	No.	FED	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	FED	Rtg	No.
1	2	MGL	2314	WGM	Uuriintuya Uurtsaikh	½ - ½	IM	Osmak Iulija	UKR	2394	12
2	3	UKR	2275	WGM	Babiy Olga	1 - 0	IM	Nakhbayeva Guliskhan	KAZ	2336	1
3	4	IND	2259	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	1 - 0	WIM	Franco Valencia Angela	COL	2107	11
4	5	IND	1925	WIM	Chandreyee Hajra	½ - ½	WIM	Varshini V	IND	2171	10
5	6	IND	2175	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	½ - ½	IM	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	MGL	2428	9
6	7	IND	2168	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	1 - 0	WIM	Sapale Saloni	IND	2198	8

Will someone be able to stop Olga Babiy? (right) | Photo: Niklesh Jain

One has to commend the work done by AICF here. They are giving an opportunity to the young talents of Indian chess to fight against experienced and strong international women players. Yes, there are games with mistakes and errors. But with this experience you can be sure that they will improve and move forward. Take the example of Rakshitta Ravi. She scored just 0.5/11 in the first AICF women's Round Robin tournament held in Mumbai. It was a painful event for her. But she learnt her lessons and within six months she was already a WIM!