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After a fiercely fought third round, Mary Ann Gomes of Bengal and Aarthie Ramesh of Indian Airlines emerged joint leaders in the National Women A Chess Championship being played at Hotel Goldfinch, Bangalore on Tuesday.
Aarthie, a former world under-18 girls champion won after a long an exciting 81-move game with the black pieces. She played the Bogo-Indian defence with the black pieces and even got a comfortable position. Sivasankari dropped a pawn but fought back. Chances moved between a win for black and a draw. In time pressure, experience helped and Aarthie won. "Logically the game should have ended in a draw," said GM R.B.Ramesh who is also trainer and husband of
Aarthie.
Mary Ann Gomes won a piece against Kruttika Nadig with the white pieces after exerting pressure on the queen side in the ending. "Her queen bishop pawn became a winner," said the chief arbiter
V.Kameswaran.
Tuesday saw the clash of the titans of women's chess in India. Anupama Gokhale and Bhagyashree Thipsay had won the national women's title five times apiece. Strangely, both won it twice before marriage and thrice after marriage. Anupama had the advantage of playing with the white pieces and won on Tuesday to be one among the three players in third place with two points.
Another player to move to the third place with two points is Sangeetha of Tamil Nadu who shocked Swati Ghate. Kruttika Nadig who lost to Mary Ann Gomes is the other player on two points, tied for the third place.
Two WGMs are struggling. Swati Ghate is on minus one (1/3) and top seed Nisha Mohota (1.5/3) is yet to figure in a decisive game.
Ten rounds remain to be played in this 14-player round robin tournament. The closing ceremony will be held on May 6.
Results of round three:
| Anupama Gokhale
(PSPB) 2 |
bt |
Bhagyashree Thipsay
(IDBI) 1.5 |
| Anuprita Patil
(Mah) 0.5 |
drew |
P.Priya (TN) 1 |
| P.Sivasankari (TN)
1 |
lost
to |
Aarthie Ramesh (IA) 3 |
| M.R.Sangeetha (TN)
2 |
bt |
Swati Ghate
(LIC) 1 |
| Mary Ann Gomes (Ben)
3 |
bt |
Kruttika Nadig
(Kar) 2 |
| Nisha Mohota (Ben)
1.5 |
drew |
N.Raghavi (TN) 0.5 |
| Swati Mohota (Ben)
1.5 |
bt |
Nimmy George
(Ker) 1.5. |
Pairings for Wednesday's (9 am to 1 p.m.) Round four:
|
Bhagyashree Thipsay
|
v
|
Nimmy George
|
|
N.Raghavi
|
v
|
Swati Mohota
|
|
Kruttika Nadig
|
v
|
Nisha Mohota
|
|
Swati Ghate
|
v
|
Mary Ann Gomes
|
|
Aarthie Ramesh
|
v
|
M.R.Sangeetha
|
|
P.Priya
|
v
|
P.Sivasankari
|
|
Anupama Gokhale
|
v
|
Anuprita Patil.
|
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