Now, National ‘A’ chess postponed

As per the earlier schedule, the tournament was to begin on Thursday, followed by a break on Friday. The off day was planned just after a round because on Friday there would have been no live coverage of games on the internet due to lack of enough setting time and other technical data, said Dongre. ‘‘The players also did not like the idea of discontinuing the tempo on the second day of the event itself,’’ added the academy chief.

India’s latest IWM Dronavali Harika (12) expects to finish with at least five points in the tournament. ‘‘The contest will be very tough and I will be offering my best,’’ she said.

Pune’s 18-year-old Easha Karvade, Swati Mohota and Asian sub-junior champions IWM Tania Sachdev are known for their brilliant game and given an opportunity have the potential to turn the tables on fancied rivals.

First round pairings:

Men: S Kidambi-bye; Praveen Thipsay vs Satchidanand Soman; K Sasikiran vs S Satyapragyan; Tejas Bakre vs Shriram Jha; P Harikrishna vs Suvrjit Saha; MR Venktesh vs GB Prakash; Arvind Shastry vs Dibyendu Barua; V Sarvanan vs Lanka Ravi; Abhijit Kunte vs SS Ganguly; RB Ramesh vs Prathamesh Mokal; Saptarshi Roy Chaudhari vs Neelotpal Das

Women: K Nadiq-bye; Swati Ghate vs Y Pratibha; Nisha Mohota vs Easha Karavade; D Harika vs Tanya Sachdev; Sai Meera vs Swati Mohota; A Ramaswamy vs S Vijayalakshmi; JE Kavitha vs S Meenakshi.