National Women's Challengers Chess: Michelle Catherina wins title

Bharat Singh Chauhan, Secretary All India Chess Federation along with Sarabjit Singh Sabharwal, trustee of the Naurang Foundation

Tamil Nadu continues to remain the chess state of the country with a clean sweep in the National Women’s Challengers’ Chess. Tenth seed Michelle Catherina of Tamil Nadu has won the Amity 39th National Women Challengers Chess Championship. She beat third seed Nimmy A G of Kerala in the final round on Sunday. P Priya and J Saranya – also from Tamil Nadu – beat R Bharthi and Ramya Krishna respectively in the final round to tie for the second place. Priya earned the runners-up trophy on better tiebreak.

(From left) Priya, the first runners-up, champion Michelle Catherina, J Saranya, second runners-up

Top twenty players from the event have qualified for the top national women’s chess event – the National Premier Chess Championship – which is will be held in Maharashtra in October. The National Women’s Chess Challengers was held in New Delhi from August 18-26 in New Delhi. Tournament director was Ajeet Kumar, Chief Arbiter was IA Gopakumar M S.

Final standings:

1. Michelle Catherina P 2079 – 92. WIM Priya P 2167 – 83. WFM Saranya J 2140 – 84. WFM Swati Mohota 2025 – 7.55. WFM Mahalakshmi M 2058 – 7.56. WFM Bharathi R 2083 – 7.57. Nimmy A G 2195 – 7.58. WFM Chandika Divyasree 2218 – 7.59. WFM Pujari Rucha 2210 – 7.510. WIM Thipsay Bagyashree Sathe 2126 – 7.511. Cholleti Sahajasri 2049 – 7.512. Rajasurya J 1957 – 7.513. Harini S 2029 – 7.514. Mokal Amruta Sunil 2073 – 715. Roy Pallabi 1946 – 716. Salini R 1823 – 717. WFM Kotepalli Sai Nirupama 1958 – 718. WFM Raghavi N 2101 – 719. WFM Ramya Krishna I 2128 – 720. Lasya G 1993 – 721. A Akshaya 2016 – 722. WCM Tejaswini Sagar 1718 – 6.523. Varshini V 1909 – 6.524. Shweta Gole 1984 – 6.525. WCM Savant Riya 1868 – 6.526. Sandhya G IND 1713 – 6.527. Hinduja Reddy 1791 – 6.528. WFM Mitali Madhukar Patil 1912 – 6.529. Pushpalata Mangal 1846 – 6.530. Bala Kannamma P 1996 – 6.531. Anjana Krishna S 1881 – 632. Aparajita Gochhikar 1849 – 633. Meenu Rajendran 1967 – 634. Priya Vss 1795 – 635. Ardra V H 1812 – 636. Shiny Das 1786 – 637. Akhade Vaishnavi 1609 – 638. Aakasha 1620 – 639. Madhuri M Patil 2014 – 640. Anigani Kavya 1709 – 641. Chandreyee Hajra 1682 – 642. Kesshni Bhasiin 1594 – 643. Meghna Upadhyay 1578 – 644. Jayashree P Sankpal 1735 – 645. Madhurima Shekhar 1963 – 5.546. Meghna C H 1779 – 5.547. Smaraki Mohanty 1771 – 5.548. Supriya Joshi 1815 – 5.549. Arunima Kalra 1871 – 5.550. Minki Sinha 1822 – 5.551. Manasa H R 1653 – 5.552. Matta Theja Sahhethhe 1631 – 5.553. Pammi Rani 1574 – 5.554. Anshul Kaushik 1591 – 5.555. Shweta Priyadarshini 1583 – 5.556. Vaibhavi Thakur 1598 – 5.557. Sushmita Lama 1559 – 5.558. Pranisha Gurung 0 – 5.559. Vantika Agrawal 1458 – 560. Radhika Devi Chavali 1432 – 561. Ravneet Kaur 0 – 562. Hada Nancy 1344 – 563. Kaur Palkin 1371 – 564. Pratiksha Pandey 1316 – 565. Apoorva Sharma 0 – 566. Rama Balhara 0 – 567. Kritvee Kapoor 0 – 568. Shweta 1544 – 4.569. Vaishnavi Thakur 1530 – 4.570. Vaishnavi MSL 0 – 4.571. Jesica 0 – 4.572. Kumari Shristi 1421 – 4.573. Gurpreet Kaur 1512 – 4.574. Shruti Kakar 1177 – 4.575. Khusboo Bari 0 – 4.576. Gurung Pushpa 0 – 4.577. Shailaja M 0 – 478. S Jayaseeli 0 – 479. Shah Anila Kishorekumar 1551 – 480. Janaki Devi M 1349 – 481. Arundhati Brahmachari 0 – 482. Rai Supriya 0 – 483. Namrata Sharma 0 – 484. Gole Vaishnavi 1409 – 485. Sagnika Pratihari 0 – 486. Shreya Sharma 0 – 487. Ria Dawar 0 – 488. Satabdi Majumder 0 – 3.589. Arti Kapoor 0 – 3.590. Priyanka Sahoo 0 – 391. Amritpal Kaur Kang 0 – 392. Ananya Aggarwal 0 – 393. Richa Savant 0 – 394. Rathore Sonakshi 1987 – 2.595. Saranya Sivani Varma 0 – 2.596. Sonal Parmar 0 – 2.597. Anushree Aggarwal 0 – 1.5