|
Round four was eventful. It all happened. At the end of it, Chennai's M.R.Sangeetha joined WGM Aarthie Ramesh and WFM Mary Ann Gomes in the lead with three points in the 31st National Women's A Chess Championship being played at Hotel Goldfinch in Bangalore on Wednesday.
Tied for the fourth place are IWM Anupama Gokhale and top seed WGM Nisha Mohota with 2.5 points. Nisha Mohota who had drawn all her previous games won at the cost of Kruttika Nadig of Karnataka.
Aarthie opened with the king pawn and faced the French defence from Sangeetha. The 2003 national women's champion seized the advantage with a knight firmly sitting in the centre of the board. Aarthie paid the price for not exchanging queens and retaining the strong knight against bishop. Later, in an equal position she allowed a tactical shot on the king side. She lost on time in a lost position.
Sangeetha showed she is a master strength by scalping her second woman grandmaster in a row. She had humbled Swati Ghate in the third round. She waited patiently and grabbed the opportunity when a pregnant Aarthie slipped in Wednesday's game. Her brother IM M.R.Venkatesh is accompanying her at
Bangalore.
Mary Ann Gomes tried to push too hard with the black pieces and lost when her sacrificed pawn did not deliver the desired yields. Swati Ghate used the bishop pair advantage and the extra pawn fruitfully with the white pieces after playing the English attack against the Najdorf Sicilian.
Both the five time national women champions, Bhagyashree Thipsay and Anupama Gokhale could not win despite having the advantage of making the first move. They drew teenaged Nimmy George and Anuprita Patil in long games.
Like M.R.Sangeetha, P.Priya of Chennai is also looking for the IWM norm from this event. "They have set the IWM norm target for 8/13," said Priya with a hope of getting there. She accounted for her state mate Sivasankari in 43 moves with the white pieces from an irregular variation of the Sicilian
defence.
Nine rounds remain to be played. The event which is played on a round robin basis comes to a close on May 6.
Results of the fourth round:
| Bhagyashree Thipsay
(IDBI) 2 |
drew |
Nimmy George
(Ker) 1 |
| N.Raghavi (TN)
1 |
drew |
Swati Mohota (Ben) 2 |
| Kruttika Nadig
(Kar) 2 |
lost
to |
Nisha Mohota (Ben) 2.5 |
| Swati Ghate
(LIC) 2 |
bt |
Mary Ann Gomes (Ben) 3 |
| Aarthie Ramesh (IA)
3 |
lost
to |
M.R.Sangeetha (TN) 3 |
| P.Priya (TN)
2 |
bt |
P.Sivasankari (TN) 1 |
| Anupama Gokhale
(PSPB) 2.5 |
drew |
Anuprita Patil
(Mah) 1 |
Pairing for the Thursday's fifth round:
| Anuprita
Patil |
v |
Bhagyashree Thipsay |
| P.Sivasankari |
v |
Anupama Gokhale |
| M.R.Sangeetha |
v |
P.Priya |
| Mary Ann
Gomes |
v |
Aarthie Ramesh |
| Nisha Mohota |
v |
Swati Ghate |
|
