Vaishali wins Indian Women Challengers

The RamRatna 42nd National Women Challengers, sponsored by RamRatna Group and organized by Diaspora Times, was held in Bhayandar, Mumbai from the 2nd to 11th of July 2015. The top eight players from the tournament qualify to play in the National Premier Championships which will be held later this year. The tournament had many big names of Indian chess like Tania Sachdev, Soumya Swaminathan, Mary Ann Gomes, Nisha Mohota, Swati Ghate and others.

All of them: well almost – there were a total 104 entries in the 42nd Indian Women Challengers

But the event was dominated by a 14-year-old girl from Chennai – R. Vaishali (2276). Her extreme talent combined with fearlessness makes her a very dangerous opponent. Everyone was in awe of her fighting spirit, as Vaishali raced to 7.0/7 start with wins over experienced campaigners like WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty, WGM Bhakti Kulkarni and IM Nisha Mohota. Losses to Tania and Soumya in eighth and tenth rounds were compensated with victories in the succeeding games.

R. Vaishali – National Women Challengers title at the age of 14! Now that’s an achievement…

With a score of 9.0/11 she tied with Soumya and Tania for the first place, but won the title on better tie-break score. This young girl already has two huge achievements to her credit – the Under-12 World title in the year 2012 in Maribor, and beating Magnus Carlsen in a simultaneous display given by the Norwegian in Chennai before his World Championship Match in 2013.

Receiving the winner’s trophy from the former
Chief Minister of Maharashtra Prithviraj Chavan

After she won the event, I waited for Vaishali to go back to her hometown Chennai and then called her up for a small interview. My first question was, “So, Vaishali, how are you celebrating your success?” And this is what she said: “Yes I am enjoying myself. I went to GM R. B. Ramesh’s academy yesterday at half past nine in the morning, practiced the whole day and came back at ten in the night.” I was stunned. To work hard after such a successful tournament requires enormous amounts of dedication and discipline! This girl is sure to make it big. Here’s the interview:

Sagar Shah: How does it feel to win such a strong event?

R. Vaishali: It was always my dream to play in the National Premier. This was the first time that I qualified for it. It is a wonderful feeling to win the tournament when strong players like Tania Sachdev, Soumya Swaminathan and Nisha Mohota were playing.

The winner Vaishali, flanked by Soumya Swaminathan (runner-up) on the left
and Tania Sachdev (third) on the right

SS: Whom would you like to dedicate this victory to?

RV: I would dedicate this victory to my coach GM R.B. Ramesh sir. After one of my losses, he called me and made me believe that I can still win the tournament. That motivated me.

Ed – We asked Vaishali’s coach R. B. Ramesh about his pupil and this is what he had to say, “Vaishali is a very talented and extremely hard-working girl. She is also level headed and fights well till the end. What was heartening about her win is that though she lost her eighth round she came back with a win in ninth and did the same after the penultimate round loss with a final round win with 1.Nc3! I hope she will make it to the Indian women’s team this year.”

Also my parents have been a big support. My father works in a bank and my mother is a housewife. She usually accompanies me and my brother R.Praggnanandhaa (11 years old, Elo 2129) to the tournaments. But just like last year, this year too, the Women National Challengers clashed with my brother’s under-11 Nationals. In 2014, I skipped my tournament for that reason. But this year I wanted to play at all costs. My mother went to Pondicherry with my brother and I decided to come to Mumbai, even if it meant travelling alone.

SS: You lost the eighth round and came back strongly in the ninth. The same thing happened again. You lost the penultimate game but won the crucial final round. How do you come back after such losses?

RV: After seven rounds when I was leading with 7.0/7 many people came up to me and started congratulating me saying that I would definitely win the tournament. I got really upset when I lost to Tania in the eighth round. But then I spoke with my father who said, “Don’t get disheartened. You will get what you deserve.” This calmed me down and I won my next game.

SS: Who is your role model in chess?

RV: My role model is chess is definitely Viswanathan Anand. But I very much like the style of Zhansaya Abdumalik, who is one year older than me. I beat her in Under-12 World Championships in Maribor in 2012. But still I like to study her games and learn from them.

SS: What is your aim in chess?

RV: My main aim is to continuing playing, keep increasing my rating and become a full-fledged grandmaster one day.

SS: One last question – in the all-important crucial last round you played 1. Nc3!? How did you decide on that move?

RV: I was paired against my roommate M. Mahalakshmi in the final round. We had been helping each other to prepare against our opponents right from the first day. I just wanted to play something different and surprise her. Hence 1.Nc3!?

SS: And here you just went for the move g4!? Don’t you think it just loses a pawn?

RV: Before this tournament I played in the Commonwealth Championships. Over there I analysed regularly with Mahalakshmi. I realized that she used to get pretty uncomfortable when her opponents would play aggressive chess. Therefore, I went for g4!? I had not calculated anything much. I knew that she would not take the pawn. It was just a psychological ploy.

We asked Vaishali to send her favourite game from the tournament along with her annotations and she chose her seventh round win over J. Saranya.

Just in case you haven’t had enough of this young talent, here is a four minute video interview of Vaishali along with her mother and brother taken by Amruta Mokal at the World Juniors 2014 in Pune. Cute is the perfect word that describes this chess family!

The runner-up of the event was WGM Soumya Swaminathan. The former World Junior Champion had a horrible start as she lost two consecutive games in rounds four and five. At 3.0/5, it seemed as if Soumya’s chance to qualify for the National Premier were all but over. But like a true champion she revived her fighting spirit and chalked one victory after another, scoring six straight wins to finish second.

“Never say die!” was Soumya’s war cry in this event!

In the crucial tenth round, Soumya was able to defeat the eventual winner of the tournament R. Vaishali. This encounter has been deeply annotated by Soumya herself. Have a look at what lay beneath the surface!

The style icon of Indian chess Tania Sachdev was by far the most solid player at the event. She scored seven wins and four draws and remained unbeaten. After her poor performance at the Commonwealth Chess Championships 2015 in Delhi, where she lost the first round on time, Tania came straight to Mumbai to play in the National Challenger. She showed some great chess and was the one who stopped Vaishali’s scintillating run in the eighth round.

Just after this event ended, Tania is already busy preparing to play against the world in the “Red Bull – Battle for the Queen” contest. The game between Tania versus the world will take place on the 22nd of July – you can get more information about it from the official page of Red Bull.

Goa’s top player WGM Bhakti Kulkarni not only finished fourth
but also gained 23 Elo from the event

Fifth: V. Varshini, who is rated just 1959, qualified to the National Premier for the second time in consecutive years. The reigning Under-17 National Champion gained a whopping 155 rating points from this tournament!

Sixth: Neha Singh, wife of IM D. P. Singh, scored four wins in
the last four rounds to secure a spot in the National Premier

Seventh: Michelle Catherina from Tamil Nadu who beat strong players
like Soumya Swaminathan, Rucha Pujari and Ivana Maria Furtado

Eighth: 14-year-old talent from Tamil Nadu K. Priyanka

The National Premier 2015, according to the AICF website, is scheduled to be held from 10th – 22nd October in West Bengal. It will be a twelve player Round Robin event. This is how the twelve players are selected:

• Eight qualifiers from the National Challengers
• The top three rated women players of India
• The defending National Champion

The top three rated women players of India are Humpy Koneru (2589), Harika Dronavalli (2508) and Padmini Rout (2441). There is a high possibility that Humpy and Harika would not participate in the National Premier. Assuming that Padmini decides to play, she is the third highest rated player of the country by quite some margin and was also the defending National Champion. This leaves eleven players to be qualified instead of eight from the National Challengers 2015. Thus, the remaining three qualifiers are:

Ninth: The experienced war horse WGM Swati Ghate

Tenth: Pratyusha Bodda (right) and eleventh: 13-year-old Priyanka Nutakki (left)

Top final standings (after eleven rounds)

• Results and standings of all 104 players

Top class organization

Some days ago there were a few articles written on the ChessBase newspage by Sabrina Chevannes about the poor level of organization at the Commonwealth Championships 2015 held in Delhi, India. It seemed as if the organizers of the 42nd National Women Challengers made it their personal responsibility to show the world that Indians too are capable of staging high quality events.

The tournament was organized in Keshav Shrushti, in Mumbai. The campus, which is nearly 250 acres in size, is nestled in the lap of nature and spread across miles of greenery, flowing streams and hills. It is home to various species of fauna and flora and herbal plants, coupled with mango and coconut plantations. It was a perfect environment for conducting a chess tournament. And what’s more, each and every player was provided free accommodation within the tournament premises.

The titled players (IMs and WGMs) were provided single rooms in cottages like these

Amenities like swimming pool and table tennis were provided to players in order to unwind

Spacious settings with top boards on the podium...

... with the rest of the 104 players comfortable in the playing hall

Creativity at its best – a flowery chess board!

The man who made this event possible Ashok Motwani (right) seen in this picture with Salil Ghate

The runner up of the event WGM Soumya Swaminathan wrote to us after the event, “In his speech at the closing ceremony, Mr. Ashok Motwani mentioned that his idea behind organising this event was to conduct a tournament that players would want to play rather than one that they have to play. I would like to thank him, Salil Ghate and everyone involved for implementing this thought so wonderfully. Certainly one of the best organised events I have played till date.”

Pictures by Amruta Mokal and Subhash Morvekar

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN You can use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.