Top seed Padmini Rout defeated Rutumbara Bidhar, while second seed Soumya Swaminathan prevailed over Bhagya Jayesh in the opening round of the 40th National women’s challengers’ chess tournament at Hotel Kovilakam Residency here on Friday.
Third seed Nisha Mohota beat Navya Vyshnavi and Kiran Monisha Mohanty, seeded fourth, triumphed over Shalon Joanne Pais. Among other higher rated players to record wins, were Swati Ghate, Rucha Pujari and Nimmy A. George.
Important results (first round): Padmini Rout bt Rutumbara Bidhar; Bhagya Jayesh lost to Soumya Swaminathan; Nisha Mohota bt Navya Vyshnavi; Shalon Joanne Pais lost to Bhakti Kulkarni; Kiran Monisha Mohanty bt P. Supreetha; Aishwarya lost to Swati Ghate; Prathyusha Bodda bt Gauri Hadkonkar; Vankita Agarwal lost to Rucha Pujari; J. Saranya bt I. Harivardhini; Matta Theja Sahhethhe lost to Nimmy A. George; P. Michelle Catherina bt Meghna Upadhyay; K. Priyanka drew with R. Bharathi; Aarthie Ramaswamy bt Angira Choudhuri; Krishna Mishra lost to Ivana Maria Furtado; Swati Mohota bt J. Jeevitha; S.G. Archana drew with S. Harini; M. Mahalakshmi bt Tanvi Bhave; K.G. Sumathi lost to G.K. Monisha; R. Vaishali bt K. Kavya Sristhi; Aditi Prabhugaonkar lost to G. Lasya; Srija Seshadri bt Gunjal Chopdekar; Monika Sahu lost to R. Preethi; P. Bala Kannamma bt Malika Handa; Niti Gupta lost to Riya Savant; Siddhali Shetye bt Anisha Mishra. — Special Correspondent
