The 11th National team chess championship got underway, amidst confusion over availability of clocks and chessboards and subsequent postponement of the men’s first round, here on Wednesday.
Though the organisers claim they had informed the players that they should bring their own clocks and boards, the players insisted that in all National championships it is generally the responsibility of the host to provide them.
There was also a serious debate between the players and the organisers over the implementation of the ‘Zero Tolerance’ rule which, according to the organisers, stipulates that if a player doesn’t turn up at the scheduled start of the game, the opponent will be awarded a point.
The players felt that in view of the travel time and the traffic jams prevalent in the city, the rule may be avoided for this National.
The women’s team event featuring 10 GMs began after a delay, owing to a long-drawn out inaugural function. PSPB, LIC and Goa Chess Association all scored facile 4-0 wins.
The results: Women: Team event: First round: PSPB bt Cyber Chess Academy 4-0 (Rucha Pujari bt Ankitha Goud, Soumya Swaminathan bt B. Shivani, Mahalakshmi bt S.S. Rohitha, Michelle Catherina bt K. Vinuthna).
LIC bt AP 4-0 (Bindu K. Saritha bt Siva Sai Saugandhi, Swathi Ghate bt Anushka Raj, Kiran Manisha Mohanthy bt G. Akhila, Manjul Srivastava bt Ch. Bhavana).
Goa Chess Assn bt Vanitha Team 4-0 (Prabhugaonkar bt T. Shriya, K. Fernandes bt Shivsha, Thorat Aishwarya bt Swetha, Gauri Keshav bt Shreemaiye).
