Divya finishes third, Mrudul creditable fifth

By Paritosh Pramanik

CITY’s Woman International Master (WIM) Divya Deshmukh added another feather to her cap as she finished a creditable third in the 46th National Women Chess Championship on Saturday.
The competition was organised by Chettinad Public School, Karaikudi in Madurai. Another city girl Mrudul Deshmukh also excelled in the tough competition finishing fifth.
While Divya collected 8.5 points from 11 rounds, Mrudul garnered eight from same number of games.
In the last round, Divya defeated Woman International Master PV Nandhidhaa of Tamil Nadu with black pieces on the third table while 24th ranked Mrudul managed to hold 10th seed WIM Vantika Agrawal of Delhi to a draw. 
Divya started with King’s pawn opening to which Nandhidhaa replied with Sicilian Defence. The over three-hour long battle lasted for 50 moves in which Divya emerged winner.
On the second table, Mrudul once again played a marathon battle which lasted for more than five hours and 79 moves after which both the players signed peace treaty.
The win gave Divya a cash prize of Rs 2 lakh while Mrudul received Rs 1.25 lakh for her fifth place finish.
Both 15-year-old players are Standard X students of Bhavan’s Bhagwandas Purohit Vidya Mandir. Divya is studying in Civil Lines branch while Mrudul is a student of Trimurti Nagar branch.
On her way to third place, Divya defeated Ananya Vora, Rutuja Bakshi (both of Maharashtra), V Varshini, J Saranya, Catherina Michelle and PV Nandhidhaa (all of Tamil Nadu) and Nityata Jain of Madhya Pradesh. She drew with Kiran Mohanty of LIC, Meenakshi Subbaraman of Air India and state-mate Mrudul and lost only one game to Bhakti Kulkarni of Air India.
Mrudul defeated Aditi Shrivastava of Madhya Pradesh, Siddhali of Maharashtra, M Mahalakshmi of Railways Sports Promotion Board, V Rindhiya and Srija Sheshadri (both Tamil Nadu) and Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman of Air India. She drew with P Thamaraiselvi of Tamil Nadu, Soumya Swaminathan of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, state-mate Divya and Vantika Agrawal of Delhi. She, too, lost only one game to PV Nandhidhaa of Tamil Nadu.
Both the city girls were elated with their performances in a tournament which was one of the toughest in the country.
Divya, after making a hat-trick of titles in the U-15 nationals at Chennai last week, continued her rich form as she made another podium finish.
Mrudul, who had said that she would take this tournament to gain experience, defeated some higher rated opponents which helped her complete her WIM norm on Friday.
“I am really happy with my performance. It was a great tournament where I gained a lot of experience. Hope this will help me in my future tournaments,” said Divya. I would like to thank my school Principal Anju Bhutani for the support and my coaches GM RB Ramesh, GM Srinath Narayan and GM Jacob Aagard who guided me all through my journey so far.”
Mrudul, too, was elated with her show where she collected 120 rating points. “I am really happy with my performance even though I did not finish on the podium. But still learned a lot from this meet,” said Mrudul.
“It was a very tough tournament in which I played against a few higher rated opponents. Defeating them and earning third WIM norm is really pleasant,” added Mrudul.
Had Mrudul won the last match she would have finished third but the 15-year-old is not too worried about it.
“From this meet I have learnt not to give up and fight till the end,” Mrudul added.
She also thanked her school Principal Parwati Iyer for supporting her in the best possible way.
“I won’t have reached this far without the support of my school management, and principal Iyer madam,” said Mrudul.
“The coaching I got from International Master Anup Deshmukh sir during my early days has really helped me. Now, I am learning from Gurpreet (Singh Maras) sir. He is really working hard on me. A 30-hour coaching from GM Swapnil Dhopade too helped me a lot. I thank all my coaches for where I am today,” said Mrudul.