National women chess: Mary Ann may find it tough

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).