Padmini Rout won National Premier Chess Championship title
Defending champion and top seed Padmini Rout of Odisha retained the Ram Ratna Women’s National Premier Chess Championship title after posting a win over Tania Sachdev on Monday.
Padmini, playing black against former national champion Tania Sachdev of Air India, was content to go for routine exchanges in a Queen’s Gambit declined. Her strategy paid rich dividends as Tania faltered in the rook and pawn ending, enabling Padmini to set up a straightforward win, with her extra pawn.
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Padmini Rout, who plays the bottom ranker K. Priyanka in the final round, now has an insurmountable score of 8.5 points.
International Master Padmini, who suffered a draw and a loss to fall behind in the title race, showed her mettle in the second half of the tournament with a series of fine performances to tally 8.5 points from 10 rounds.
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