Saimeera bungles; Swati is sole leader

By Our Sports Reporter

PALAKKAD, FEB. 18. Getting off to a great start to a tournament has rarely been a problem for Swati Ghate. The trouble with her is that she often struggles to retain that tempo. But on a sweltering Sunday afternoon at Hotel Srichakra International, she needed some considerable help from Saimeera Ravi for that early sole lead. Swati took her tally to the four full points after the fourth round of the Srichakra Cool Mist 27th National women's `B' chess championship.

With five rounds left, half-a-point behind the top seed from LIC are four players, her team-mate and second seed Nisha Mohota, Aarthie Ramaswamy of Wipro, seeded third, fourth seed Anupama Gokhale of PSCB and S. R. Radha of ONGC. On the second board Anupama and Radha drew, on the third Nisha made short work of P. Priya of Tamil Nadu and Aarthie outclassed D. Harika of Andhra on the fourth. In the Ruy Lopez game on the top board, Saimeera with white pieces, let go a golden chance to shock the No. 1 seed and one of India's strongest female players. The Chennai-based player of Indian Bank messed up her clearly better position to gift Swati a win.

The results (fourth round): Saimeera Ravi (IB) 3 lost to Swati Ghate (LIC) 4; Anupama Gokhkale (PSCB) 3.5 drew with S. R. Radha (ONGC) 3.5; Nisha Mohota (LIC) 3.5 bt P. Priya (TN) 2.5; D. Harika (CP) 2.5 lost to Aarthie Ramaswamy (Wipro) 3.5; Y. Prathiba (Chromepet Chess Academy, Chennai) 3 drew with Bhagyashree Thipsay (IDBI) 3.5; Mrunalini Kunte Aurangabadkar (IDBI) 3 bt Swati Mohota (LIC) 2.5; M. Kasthuri (TN) 2 lost to Dolan Champa Bose (Bih) 3; Tania Sachdev (Del) 2.5 drew with Pazha Sivakami (TN) 2.5; Eesha Karvade (Mah) 2.5 drew with P. Malar Selvi (T. Nagar Chess Academy, Chennai) 2.5; Kruttika Nadig (Mah) 2.5 drew with Arpi Shah (Guj) 2.5; S. Sujatha (Emanuel Chess Centre, Chennai) 3 bt M. Rajadarshini (Emaneul) 2; M. R. Sangeetha (TN) bt Prasanna Shivasamy (Goa) 2.

L. Iswarya Shobana (Capa Chess Academy, Chennai) 3 bt Nimmy A. George (Ker) 2; S. Nabeela Farheen (TN) 2 lost to Safira Shanaz (TN) 2.5; Anuradha Beniwal (Har) 1.5 lost to N. Sandhya (Ker) 2.5; E. Sheena (Ker) 2 drew with Krishna S. Babu (AICF) 2; Bindu Saritha (LIC) 2.5 bt Manjula V. James (Ker) 1.5; Kiran Agrawal (Chg) 2.5 bt Pooja Rathode (Chg) 1.5; Sreeparna Chakraborty (Ben) 1.5 drew with Aneegha Tahseen (T. Nagar) 1.5; C. Delphin (TN) 2 bt Sasmita Bhoi (Ori) 1; Baisakhi Das (Ben) 2 bt Sanajana Raj 1; P. Sudha (Ker) 1 lost to Aswathi Balagopalan (Ker) 2; Jayashree Sankpal (LIC) 2 bt Alka Das (Bih) 1; Cija Augustus (Ker) 1.5 drew with Shah Jabeen (MP) 1.5.

Anuprita Patil (Mah) 2 bt V. Mrunalini (Kar) 1; Amruta Mokal (Mah) 2 bt Vidya Fotto (Goa) 1; R. Mahima (Chromepet) 2 bt S. Anushya (Pon) 1; Reshma (Lak) 1 lost to N. Raghavi (Capa) 2; G. Lalitha (Kar) 1 bt Sneha Hobble (Goa) 0; S. Sushama (Kar) 1 bt Sofiya V. James (Lak) 0; Anila Shah (Guj) 0 lost to Sreedevi Sivadas (Lak) 1; Joyce Maria Simoes (Goa) 1 bt Swetha (AP) 0.

Third round (important results): Swati Ghate bt Tania; Aarthie drew with Prathiba; Arpi lost to Anupama; Radha bt Mrunalini Aurangabadkar; Saimeera bt Sujatha; Bhagyashree bt Anuradha; Swati Mohota bt Safira; Priya bt Kiran; Harika bt Sreeparna; Dolan bt Jayashree; Rajadarsini bt Delphin; Shah Jabeen lost to Eesha; Prasanna Shivasamy (Goa) bt Baisakhi Das; Sandhya drew with Sheena; Pooja drew with Bindu.

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