Women's Premier 2017 Round 2: Meenakshi wins the Air India tussle!

by Ankit Dalal - 27/11/2017

The 44th Iwasa Women's National Premier 2017 is turning into a bloodbath as five out of the six games ended decisively in the second round. Meenakshi scored the biggest upset of the day as she downed Challengers champion Bhakti Kulkarni. In the other news of the day Padmini Rout beat her experienced opponent Swati Ghate, while Soumya managed to overcome Kiran Manish Mohanty's resistance. Mary Ann Gomes won against Samriddhaa Ghosh and Sakshi Chitlange was unlucky to lose to Nandhidhaa after the Maharashtra girl lost her change to win a piece.

They both work for the same company Air India and are very good friends. However, over the board it was a brutal fight. Meenakshi opened the game with 1.d4 and Bhakti played the Dutch Defence.

Bhakti played the Dutch Defence, but Meenakshi kept making one strong logical move after another to bring home the full point | Photo: Ankit Dalal

Meenakshi came to the tournament in not such a good condition health wise. In fact she was even planning to cancel her trip to the tournament. However, once she sat on the board she forgot everything about her health and played a perfect game to beat the National Challengers Champion. Here's her account of the game:

Meenakshi shows her win over Bhakti Kulkarni

One only needs to remember how Bhakti made a comeback after losing her first round at the National Challengers 2017. It will be interesting to see if she can stage a similar comeback at the National Premiers.

Padmini outmanoeuvred her experienced opponent Swati Ghate with the white pieces | Photo: Ankit Dalal

Kiran Manisha Mohanty got an excellent position out of the opening, but then she went into some dubious complications to give the full point to her opponent Soumya Swaminathan | Photo: Ankit Dalal

Sakshi Chitlange with the black pieces had a winning position against Nandhidhaa, but did not find the right move order and slumped to a defeat | Photo: Ankit Dalal

Mary Ann Gomes had little difficulty in overcoming the resistance of debutant Samriddhaa Ghosh | Photo: Ankit Dalal

In this position Mary finished off the game with a flourish. It's Black to play. What would you do?

Results of Round 2

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

Ranking crosstable after Round 2

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	*								1	1			2,0	0,0	1,00	2,0
2	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2320	IND		*					1		½				1,5	0,0	1,25	1,0
3	WIM	Nandhidhaa Pv	2190	IND			*			1		½					1,5	0,0	1,25	1,0
	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	2165	IND				*	½			1					1,5	0,0	1,25	1,0
5	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2333	IND				½	*							1	1,5	0,0	0,75	1,0
6	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2248	IND			0			*					1		1,0	0,0	0,50	1,0
7	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2159	IND		0					*					1	1,0	0,0	0,00	1,0
8	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2311	IND			½	0				*					0,5	0,0	0,75	0,0
	WGM	Swati Ghate	2277	IND	0	½							*				0,5	0,0	0,75	0,0
10		Bala Kannamma P	2058	IND	0									*	½		0,5	0,0	0,25	0,0
		Ghosh Samriddhaa	1988	IND						0				½	*		0,5	0,0	0,25	0,0
12		Pandey Srishti	1885	IND					0		0					*	0,0	0,0	0,00	0,0

Pairings of round 3

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