Chennai, Nov 2 (IANS) Top seed Tania Sachdev (Air India) moved into sole lead defeating Woman Grandmaster Mary Ann Gomes (AAI) in the fifth round of the Velammal 38th National Women Premier Chess championship here Wednesday.
International Master Tania’s score of 4.5 points placed her half a point above WGM Padmini Rout of Orissa. Padmini took the second spot, scoring over higher seeded WGM Nisha Mohota.
Sharing the third spot with 3.5 points were WGMs Sowmya Swaminathan (PSPB), S. Meenakshi (AI) and Mary Ann Gomes (AAI), Nisha Mohota (PSPB) and Pratyusha Bodda (AP).
Vizag girl Pratyusha continued to make waves as she scored a dynamic miniature win over Woman International Master Bhakti Kulkarni of Goa.
Just out of the Caro Kann opening, Bhakti chose for a bishop for knight swap that allowed Pratyusha occupy the seventh rank with her rook. Subsequent knight foray (17…Ne4) appeared unconvincing as Pratyusha sacrificed an exchange and pushed for a massive kingside attack. Further inaccurate defensive moves from Bhakti hastened her defeat.
Pratyusha, who trains under Rama Raju, coach of Grandmaster Dronavalli Harika, has so far played four WGMs and a WIM, with wins over Sowmya Swaminathan, Swathi Ghate and Bhakti Kulkarni. A consistent show in the latter half of the event should possibly net the Andhra girl a Woman Grandmaster Norm.
Tania had another clinical day in the office, scoring a methodical win over Mary Ann Gomes. The King’s Indian game saw Tania consuming more time, but never relinquishing her grip on the position.
Exerting consistent pressure, Tania forced Mary Ann into further middle game errors. Conceding a pawn in a weakening position, Mary Ann failed to see the knight trap and resigned on the 37th turn.
Other rating effective results included Padmini Rout’s fluent win over Nisha Mohota and Sowmya Swaminathan’s defeat of Tamil Nadu girl Harini and Meenakshi’s industrious win over J. Saranya.
Results (Round 5): Tania Sachdev (AI) 4.5 bt Mary Ann Gomes (AAI) 3.5, Nisha Mohota (PSPB) 3.5 lost to Padmini Rout (Ori) 4, Sowmya Swaminathan (PSPB) bt S Harini (TN) 3, J Saranya (TN) 2.5 lost to S Meenakshi (AI) 3.5, Pratyusha Bodda (AP) 3.5 bt Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa) 2.5, Eesha Karavade (Mah) 2.5 drew Sai Meera (IB) 3, Swathi Ghate (LIC) 3 bt R Bharathi (TN) 2, Pon N Krithika (AICF) 2 lost to A G Nimmy (Ker) 3, Aarthie Ramaswamy (AI) 2.5 drew Cholleti Sahajasri (AP) 2.5, Chandika Divyasree (AP) 3 bt P Bala Kannamma (TN) 2, Kiran Manisha Mohanty (Ori) 2.5 bt Swati Mohota (WB) 1.5, Shweta Gole (Mah) 2.5 bt A Akshaya (TN) 1.5, M Mahalakshmi (TN) 2 bt P V Nandhidhaa (TN) 1, P Michelle Catherina (TN) 1.5 bt Supriya Joshi (Mah) 0.5, Madhurima Shekhar (Del) 0.5 Bye.
