CHENNAI: MOP Vaishnav College for Women bagged the title in the A Zone women's chess tournament organised by the University of Madras at MOP Vaishnav College. About 23 colleges took part in the tournament. All the teams played 20 games each and the hosts scored 19.5 out of 20, showing the college’s domination in the tournament.
SDNB Vaishnav, JBAS, QMC, Gurunanak college, Dr MGR Janaki college, Prince Shri Venkateshwara college, RVG college, Patrician college, and Chellammal college are some of the institutes with strong teams that participated in the tournament. Despite the absence of noted chess player and WGM R Vaishali, who could not take part due to an international tournament, the MOP Vaishnav team came out with flying colours.
“We have several international chess players and national players in our college. For this tournament, six of our top players were part of our team. Divya Bharathi M, Tejesvi M, Harshini A, Nayanikka M, Harshini B and Vaishali R. The latter could not participate as she was playing the FIDE women’s Grand Prix in Kazakhstan. It feels really good that our girls performed exceedingly well to win the tournament,” said L Amutha Sumankumar, director of physical education at the college, adding “Teaching and non-teaching staff are always very supportive. For the inter-zone, the same six players from the team will be participating.”
Harshini, a member of the victorious team is thrilled at the success of her college. She is a close friend and classmate of Vaishali. She also trains at Chess Gurukul under GM and noted coach RB Ramesh.
“It was a thrilling experience to play a team tournament. It felt all the more exciting to win the tournament as a team with all our combined efforts. All the teams played 20 games each and we were the only ones who scored 19.5 out of 20. The tournament was played in a rapid format with five rounds and each team fielding four players,” said Harshini.
All the girls from the college team trained and practised individually and also with different coaches.
“We had game and time control practice. Our college team average was quite strong and so we had a smooth run throughout the tournaments as we won almost all the games. I have a WFM title in chess. I have won a silver medal in the Asian Youth Under-18 girls chess championship and I have also won several state championships. My current rating is 2149. I have secured one WIM norm till now. I’m planning to play in international tournaments to complete my WIM title,” shared Harshini.