AICF conducts women's chess tournament with a view to developing the discipline among females

To ensure simultaneous development in women's chess as well in India, the All India Chess Federation has seriously considered the situation to come up with the solution that world class talents in women's chess be invited to India to compete with the nation's chess stars in a Round Robin format as reported by ChessBase India. Dubbed the Velammal-AICF WGM Round Robin tournament, six Indian girls are in the fray. They are Michelle Catherina, Varshini, Divya Deshmukh, Aakanksha Hagawane, Saloni Sapale and Chandreyee Hajra. The international players are Guliskhan Nakhbayeva, Munguuntuul Batkhuyag, Osmak Iulija, Uuriinuya Uurtsaikh, Babiy Olga and Franco Valencia. According to the ChessBase report, this is the third such event that the country's Chess federation has organised in a year and this is being done predominantly to develop the women's game in the country. The first such tournament had been held in Mumbai in June while the second one took place in Hyderabad in August 2018. The 2019 edition is taking place in Chennai. Velammal institute. are the title sponsors of this event and this tournament was organised with a view to give the brightest female chess talents in the country the requisite exposure in addition to providing a chance to score Woman Grandmaster or International Master norms. As things stand, here are the results from the tournament so far: Results: Round 3 (Indians unless specified): Babiy Olga (UKR) bt Nakhbayeva Guliskhan (KAZ), Aakanksha Hagawane bt Franco Valencia Angela (COL), Chandreyee Hajra drew with Varshini V, Michelle Catherina P drew with Munguntuul Batkhuyag (MON), Divya Deshmukh bt Sapale Saloni. This is how things stand rank wise at the end of Round 3. Image credits: ChessBase India