Women's Premier 2017 Round 03+04: Padmini Rout takes sole lead

by Ankit Dalal - 29/11/2017

Four rounds of the event have come to an end. Padmini Rout has taken a small lead of a half point over three of her nearest rivals - Nandhidhaa, Meenakshi and Soumya. Can the Odisha girl make it to her fourth national title in a row? The third round saw two decisive results where Srishti Pandey and Samirddhaa Ghosh slumped to defeats. The two youngsters have to get their act together, the field shows no mercy. In the fourth round we witnessed six decisive games! A fantastic show of fighting chess. Report from Surat by Ankit Dalal with pictures, games, videos and more.

Srishti Pandey and Samriddhaa Ghosh finding it difficult against top guns

Results of round 3

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	2333	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	½ - ½	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2159	12
2	3	2311	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	1 - 0		Pandey Srishti	1885	1
3	4	2248	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	½ - ½	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	2165	11
4	5	2058		Bala Kannamma P	½ - ½	WIM	Nandhidhaa Pv	2190	10
5	6	2277	WGM	Swati Ghate	1 - 0		Ghosh Samriddhaa	1988	9
6	7	2320	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	½ - ½	IM	Padmini Rout	2324	8

Tournaments like National Premier are quite difficult to handle. We saw in the Men's National Premier how Himanshu Sharma struggled to score points. In the end he managed to score 3.0/13 with four draws, one win and eight losses! Once you are identified as a target, no opponent gives you an easy life. In the 44th Iwasa Women's National Premier 2017, two players are facing something similar - Samriddhaa Ghosh and Srishti Pandey. Both of them are debutants and are currently unable to hold their higher rated opponents. While this can be a harrowing experience, it is surely something that will help them become stronger.

In the third round Srishti Pandey lost to Bhakti Kulkarni | Photo: Ankit Dalal

Swati Ghate played an offbeat line in the French to outplay Samriddhaa Ghosh | Photo: Ankit Dalal

The game between two of the favourites of the tournament IM Padmini Rout and WGM Soumya Swaminathan ended in a draw | Photo: Ankit Dalal

Round 4 - Seven decisive results!

The fourth round of the women's premier was by far the most exciting round.

Bo.	No.	Rtg		Name	Result		Name	Rtg	No.
1	12	2159	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	0 - 1	IM	Padmini Rout	2324	8
2	9	1988		Ghosh Samriddhaa	0 - 1	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2320	7
3	10	2190	WIM	Nandhidhaa Pv	1 - 0	WGM	Swati Ghate	2277	6
4	11	2165	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	1 - 0		Bala Kannamma P	2058	5
5	1	1885		Pandey Srishti	0 - 1	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2248	4
6	2	2333	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	0 - 1	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2311	3

The big result of round four was Bhakti toppling the top seed WGM Mary Ann Gomes | Photo: Ankit Dalal

The hero of the round was Nandhidhaa who beat Swati Ghate with the white pieces | Photo: Ankit Dalal

Nandhidhaa shows her win over Swati Ghate (please try and use ear phones, for the best sound quality)

Padmini Rout beat her state mate Kiran Manisha Mohanty with black | Photo: Ankit Dalal

Soumya Swaminathan managed to beat Samriddhaa Ghosh | Photo: Ankit Dalal

Sakshi Chitlange managed to put it across Srishti Pandey | Photo: Ankit Dalal

In spite of bad health S. Meenakshi is showing some excellent chess at this event and is on 3.0/4. She beat Bala Kannamma | Photo: Ankit Dalal

Ranking crosstable after Round 4

Rk.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	IM	Padmini Rout	2324	IND	*			½				1	1	1			3,5	0,0	5,50	3,0
2	WIM	Nandhidhaa Pv	2190	IND		*			½	1		1		½			3,0	0,0	5,75	2,0
	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	2165	IND			*		1	½	½			1			3,0	0,0	5,75	2,0
4	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2320	IND	½			*				½	1		1		3,0	0,0	4,50	2,0
5	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2311	IND		½	0		*		1					1	2,5	0,0	3,50	2,0
6	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2248	IND		0	½			*					1	1	2,5	0,0	2,00	2,0
7	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2333	IND			½		0		*		½			1	2,0	0,0	2,25	1,0
8	WGM	Swati Ghate	2277	IND	0	0		½				*			1		1,5	0,0	2,00	1,0
9	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2159	IND	0			0			½		*			1	1,5	0,0	1,00	1,0
10		Bala Kannamma P	2058	IND	0	½	0							*	½		1,0	0,0	1,75	0,0
11		Ghosh Samriddhaa	1988	IND				0		0		0		½	*		0,5	0,0	0,50	0,0
12		Pandey Srishti	1885	IND					0	0	0		0			*	0,0	0,0	0,00	0,0