National women chess: Mary Ann may find it tough

October 25, 2014 03:47 am | Updated May 23, 2016 06:47 pm IST - SANGLI (Maharashtra):

Looking for a fourth straight National title, Mary Ann Gomes is expected to find it tough with former champion S. Vijayalakshmi making a comeback in the 41st National women chess championship beginning here on Saturday.

The presence of former champion Nisha Mohota, who won the National challengers title last month, in-form Padmini Rout, the experienced Swati Ghate and the unpredictable Bhakti Kulkarni is set to make the title-race interesting.

Besides defending champion Mary and eight qualifiers from National challengers, the trio of Lakshmi Praneetha, Nimmy George and V. Varshini completes the 12-player field after three seeded players (based on rating list August 2014), headed by K. Humpy, chose to stay away from the 11-round all-play-all competition.

The players (as per ratings): 1. Mary Ann Gomes (2350), 2. Padmini Rout (2331), 3. S. Vijayalakshmi (2327), 4. Bhakti Kulkarni (2295), 5. Nisha Mohota (2271), 6. Swati Ghate (2232), 7. Ivana Furtado (2165), 8. Nimmy George (2118), 9. Pratyusha Bodda (2078), 10. V. Varshini (2066), 11. Lakshmi Praneetha (2049), 12. Hinduja Reddy (1934).

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.