Shalmali Gagare In Sole Lead

By Arvind Aaron

Shalmali Gagare of Maharashtra is leading the Sri Sai Ram Engineering Asian Junior Girls Chess Championship after the completion of the third round at Hotel Vijay Park in Chennai on December 8.

Shalmali shocked Kiran Mohanty after the latter blundered with a rook move in a pawn up ending. Lucky Shalmali leads with 3/3 and if followed by WGM Mary Ann Gomes, WIM Kruttika Nadig, Ch Divyasri, Bhakti Kulkarni, N. Raghavi and Padmini Rout on 2.5 points.

Second seed Baskar Adhiban used his ending skills against Ashwath Raja to win and be among the three leaders in the Asian Junior. Adhiban, Ashwin Jayaram and M.R. Lalith Babu are on full three points.

The winner of each section will be given the IM and WIM titles and also a GM and WGM norm of nine games. Six rounds remain to be played.

This event is organised by Sports Promotion Foundation and the Tamil Nadu State Chess Association. The chief arbiter is Prof Anantharam. The sponsors are Sri Sai Ram Engineering and media sponsor is BSNL. If you cant make it to Chennai until Dec 14 to witness the action you can follow the games live from 9 30 a.m. onwards.