Five share lead in women national chess

Chennai, Dec 11 (UNI) With five more rounds to go, five Woman Grandmasters -- S Vijayalakshmi, Swati Ghate, Tania Sachdev, Dronavalli Harika and S Meenakshi -- with 4.5 points each emerged the joint leaders after the sixth round 33rd National Women ''A'' Chess Championship here today.

It was not unexpected that the top board shuffle between two WGMs and overnight joint leaders Harika and Meenakashi would eventually fizzle out into an eight-move draw in a symmetrical English opening.

Woman Grand masters Harika and Meenakshi had not yet won the National A title and did not want to take chances at this stage, as it appeared.

In a Retti replica, Krutikka Nadig had some definite advantage in the middle game against the top seed Vijayalakshmi. But she frittered away the winning sequences from the 44th move onwards and her hopes were dashed in the 61st move. Vijayalakshmi played a very stout game throughout hoping for the better and achieved the same through her vast experience.

The LIC player Swati Ghate brushed aside the challenge of Saheli Nath in a Sicilian defence by winning an exchange on the 38th move.

Tania Sachdev of Delhi had no difficulty in chalking out a clear and easy 40-move win on account of mishandling of the Grunfeld defence by her adversary Esha Karavade of Maharashtra.

Results (Round Six): 1 Dronavalli Harika 4.5 drew with Meenakshi S 4.5 2 Vijayalakshmi S 4.5 bt Nadig Kruttika 3.5 3 Saheli Nath 3.5 lost to Swati Ghate 4.5 4 Tania Sachdev 4.5 bt EeshaKaravade 3.5 5 Amruta Mokal 3 lost to Nisha Mohota 4 6 Padmini Rout 4 drew with Ramya Krishna 4 7 Harini S 3 lost to Kiran Monisha Mohanty 4 8 Swati Mohota 3.5 drew with Lakshmi Sahiti P 3 9 Kanuri Tejaswi 2.5 lost to Aarthie Ramaswamy 3.5 10 Nimmy A G 3 drew with Mahima Rajmohan 3

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