At 2115, Nisha has the lowest rating among IWMs in the country. And after losing out on qualifying for the Indian team for the Chess Olympiad in June in the National A Championships, Nisha has shifted her focus from earning titles to improving her rating.

Nisha, who won her IWM title in 1995 Asian Zonals at Madras, had a great chance to make it to the Indian team. She was in the second position with three weaker opponents of the National A (held in Mumbai) to play against -- Neha Singh, Purabhi Singha and Safira Shahnaz.

She drew against Neha and lost against the other two. After her loss to Safira, Nisha appeared sad. She explained: ``It was June 14 and it was my parents' wedding anniversary. My father(Nirmal Kumar) was very keen on my qualifying for the national team. And when he learnt that I had lost to Safira he was shocked.''

But now Nisha has learnt to put these setbacks aside and play on and achieve her goal. After the National A Championships, Nisha played in the under-18 nationals and finished second behind Arthie Ramaswamy of Tamil Nadu.

Her goals include playing in the Goodricke tournament when her rating is in good health. ``If an IWM has a rating of 2255, they are given free entry. I want to reach as close to that target,'' said the 12th standard student of Jaipuria College.

In the Independence Cup tournament that concluded here recently, she had good chances against two strong players, Anup Deshmukh and Verghese Koshy. ``I could have at least drawn with Deshmukh had I tried a little harder,'' Nisha said. But her loss against Koshy again pulled her down.

``I thought I could have won in three or four moves but in time pressure...'' she trailed off. There is one problem that Nisha willfind it difficult to address. ``My examinations. Whenever its exam time, I miss out on three to four months of tournament practice,'' she said.

But with determination, it will be not long before Nisha gets a free entry into the Goodricke tournament with the required ratings.

For the record, Nisha has won three national titles and two of those came in 1993 when she was 13. She won the under-14 title at Palaghat, Kerala and under-18 a month later in Bangalore. She retained the under-14 title in Calicut in 1994.