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Three players including the local Bangalore flavour, Kruttika Nadig, Mary Ann Gomes of Bengal and Aarthie Ramesh of Indian Airlines are jointly leading the National Women A Chess Championship with two full points at Hotel Goldfinch in Bangalore on Monday afternoon.
Overall, the WGMs had a poor day. Swati Ghate lost to Sivasankari while Nisha Mohota drew her second successive game against Nimmy George. Aarthie Ramesh was the only WGM to win but on the clock!
Bangalore which is hosting this event for the third time expects a lot from Kruttika Nadig. Kruttika finished ninth in the previous nationals. Her career best is fourth place in the World Junior Girls Championship at Kochi in 2004. She is an International Woman Master and is looking forward to become a woman grandmaster.
In second place with 1.5 points is five time champion Bhagyashree Thipsay of Maharashtra. Bhagyashree is the oldest competitor in the event having won the event in 1985 for the first time. That was long before some of her rivals here were born! She won the event last in 1994 at Bangalore. There is a prize money of Rs.1.32 lakhs to be won here and Bhagyashree is one of the serious contenders for the title.
The biggest upset of the 14-player tournament was the defeat suffered by Swati Ghate to Tamil Nadu's P.Sivasankari in the second round. Five time champion Anupama Gokhale of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board recovered from the round one defeat by winning against
P.Priya.
Round two results:
| Bhagyashree Thipsay
(IDBI) 1.5 |
bt. |
Swati Mohota (Ben)
0.5 |
| Nimmy George
(Ker) 0.5 |
drew |
Nisha Mohota (Ben)
1 |
| N.Raghavi (TN) 0 |
lost to |
Mary Ann Gomes (Ben)
2 |
| Kruttika Nadig
(Kar) 2 |
bt |
M.R. Sangeetha (TN)
1 |
| Swati Ghate
(LIC) 1 |
lost to |
P. Sivasankari (TN)
1 |
| Aarthie Ramesh (IA) 2 |
bt |
Anuprita Patil
(Mah) 0 |
| P.Priya (TN) 0.5 |
lost to |
Anupama Gokhale
(BPCL) 1. |
Pairings for Tuesday's (9 a.m. to 1 pm) round three:
| Anupama Gokhale |
v |
Bhagyashree Thipsay |
| Anuprita Patil |
v |
P.Priya |
| P.Sivasankari |
v |
Aarthie Ramesh |
| M.R.Sangeetha |
v |
Swati Ghate |
| Mary Ann Gomes |
v |
Kruttika Nadig |
| Nisha Mohota |
v |
N.Raghavi |
| Swati Mohota |
v |
Nimmy George. |
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