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The title race slowed down with most of the round eight games ending in draws. But the draws were well fought. However, tournament veteran, International Women Master Bhagyashree Thipsay of IDBI, Mumbai darted to the joint third place with her third straight victory in the 31st National Women A Championship being played at Hotel Goldfinch in Bangalore on Sunday.
Top seed WGM Nisha Mohota and WFM Mary Ann Gomes continued to jointly lead the tournament despite figuring in fought drawn games against Anupama Gokhale and Anuprita Patil. Mary Ann Gomes requires
two and a half points (2.5) from the last five games to complete an IWM norm.
Five time former national champions and the oldest duo, Anupama Gokhale and Bhagyashree Thipsay are in the joint third place with five points. The upset of the round was WGM Swati Ghate's defeat to Raghavi through a blunder in a drawn position. It was Raghavi's first full point and it came after 69 moves. Now, all players in the tournament have won atleast one game. An elated Raghavi said, "I never expected to beat a WGM and it feels great."
Nisha Mohota is the only player to stay undefeated so far. After 28 moves from a Queen's Gambit, Tarrasch variation she drew Anupama Gokhale with the black pieces. Like Nisha, Mary Ann Gomes also played black, and drew Anuprita in 42 moves using the Najdorf variation of the Sicilian
defence.
Bhagyashree Thipsay capitalised on the Kruttika Nadig mistake on the 15th turn to win the four knights game with the white pieces after 47 moves. Five more rounds remain to be played in this 14-player round robin. Event concludes on May 6.
After the back to back defeats suffered to the Mohota sisters, Aarthie Ramesh was able to put the brakes with a hard fought 66-move draw against Nimmy George of Kerala. P.Priya drew Swati Mohota with white but was unhappy as she missed a tactic which would have given her an extra pawn.
The results of the eighth round:
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Bhagyashree Thipsay
(IDBI) 5
|
bt
|
Kruttika Nadig (Kar)
3
|
|
Swati Ghate (LIC) 4.5
|
lost to
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N.Raghavi (TN) 3
|
|
Aarthie Ramesh (IA) 4.5
|
drew
|
Nimmy George (Ker)
3
|
|
P.Priya (TN) 3.5
|
drew
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Swati Mohota (Ben)
4
|
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Anupama Gokhale (PSPB) 5
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drew
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Nisha Mohota (Ben)
5.5
|
|
Anuprita Patil (Mah) 4
|
drew
|
Mary Ann Gomes (Ben)
5.5
|
|
P.Sivasankari (TN) 2
|
drew
|
M.R.Sangeetha (TN)
3.5
|
The pairing for Monday's ninth round:
|
M.R.Sangeetha
|
v
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Bhagyashree Thipsay
|
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Mary Ann Gomes
|
v
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P.Sivasankari
|
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Nisha Mohota
|
v
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Anuprita Patil
|
|
Swati Mohota
|
v
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Anupama Gokhale
|
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Nimmy George
|
v
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P.Priya
|
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N.Raghavi
|
v
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Aarthie Ramesh
|
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Kruttika Nadig
|
v
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Swati Ghate
|
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