PADMINI HELD

olkata: Top seed and defending champion Padmini Rout of Orissa was held to a draw by the world U-14 girls’ champion, R Vaishali of Tamil Nadu in the opening round of the National Women’s Premier Chess Championship at the Bengal Gallery ICCR here Friday.      The 12 player round-robin league, being organised by Diaspora Times under the aegis of Bengal Chess Association will continue till November 24. Playing white, Vaishali tried to surprise her opponent by playing ‘e3’ on the first move, but it hardly surprised Padmini and the game later went into a Larsen’s opening set up. A draw was agreed to by both players after 28 moves.