D Harika on top

Chennai, Dec 9 (UNI) International Woman Grandmaster Dronavalli Harika of Andhra Pradesh with three points in a row is the only player on the top at the conclusion of the third round of the Win TV 33rd National Women's ''A'' Chess Championship here today.

WGMs S Vijayalakshmi (Indian Airlines), Tania Sachde (both Delhi) S Meenakshi (Indian Airlines, Tamil Nadu) and Eesha Karavade (Maharashtra) with 2.5 points each are in the second spot.

Further in the reckoning are 8 players --- Swati Ghate, Padmini Rout, Kiran Manisha Mohanty, Sai Meera, Kruttika Nadig , Saheli Nath, Soumya Swaminathan and Amrutha Mokal with 2 points apiece jointly locked at the third stage.

Harika with white pieces playing against Padmini Rout in a Grunfeld opening tactically allowed a fork at her 35th move . Padmini should not have ventured in to this trap and the net result was she lost her ''b' pawn for no stake and not stopping with that allowed trading of the queens too.

In an advantageous ending, Harika was bent upon pushing her ''b'' pawn to the queening square. As there was no stopper on hand, Padmini gave up her hope on the 50th move.

In an arch angel variation of the Ruy Lopez, Kiran Manisha Mohanty castled on the King's side and where as her strong adversary WGM Tania Sachdev did the same but on the king's side.

But in race for attack, it was Tania who grouped her major pieces to unleash a vigorous attack. To choose between the loss of the queen or facing a checkmate, Kiran decided to surrender her game to Tania after completing her 32nd move.

The queen's Indian defence deployed by S Vijayalakshmi against Nish Mohta produced some interesting attacking lines. After a middle game skirmish between these two WGMs , Viji's doubled pawn at the 'd' file started to steam roll and Nish had no other alternative but reach a desperate King and pawns ending.

Viji's 'f' passer turned out to be a trump card and a potential queen. So ended the game at their 80th move, the longest played so far in this championship.

Round three results Name Pts Res. Pts Name Pts 1 Harika Dronavalli 3 beat 2 Padmini Rout 2 2 Kiran Monisha Mohanty 2 lost to 1.5 Tania Sachdev 2.5 3 Mohota Nisha 1.5 lost to 1.5 Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman 2.5 4 Swathi Ghate 2 drew 1.5 Meera Sai 2 5 Meenakshi S 2.5 beat 1,5 Ramya Krishna I 1.5 6 Karavade Eesha 2.5 beat 1.5 Swati Mohota 1.5 7 Sangeetha M R 1.5 drew 1 Nimmy A G 1.5 8 Raghavi N 1 lost to 1 Nadig Kruttika 2 9 Bhakti Kulkarni 1 lost to 1 Saheli Nath 2 10 Soumya Swaminathan 2 beat 1 Harini S 1 11 Mahima Rajmohan 1.5 drew 1 Lakshmi Sahiti P 1.5 12 Thakur Aabha V 1 lost to 1 Amrutha Mokal 2 13 Ramaswamy Aarthie 1.5 beat 1.5 Priya P, 0.5 14 Kavitha J E 1.5 beat 0.5 Baisakhi Das 0.5 15 Preethi R 1 beat 1.5 Nilavoli H 0 16 Pon N Krithika 0 lost to 0 Kanuri Tejaswi 1 Sujatha S, 1 Bye UNI