Swati signs peace treaty, still on top

By Our Sports Reporter

PALAKKAD, FEB. 21. Swati Ghate finally decided to take it easy. The top seed from LIC agreed to a quick draw with veteran Bhagyashree Thipsay of IDBI, seeded fifth, but still maintained her sole lead by a full point at the end of the seventh round of the Srichakra Cool Mist 27th National women's `B' chess championship at Hotel Srichakra here on Wednesday.

With just two rounds left, Swati has 6.5 points, and is followed on 5.5 points by Bhagyashree and M.R. Sangeetha of Tamil Nadu, who made the best of a blunder from Y. Prathiba of Chromepet Chess Academy, Chennai.

As many as eight players - Prathiba, Nisha Mohota of LIC, Wipro's Aarthie Ramaswamy, Anupama Gokhale of PSCB, Indian Bank's Saimeera Ravi, S. Sujatha of Emanuel Chess Centre, Chennai, Dolan Champa Bose of Bihar and P. Priya of Tamil Nadu - have five points apiece, as the battle for 10 places for the National women's `A' meet has hotted up.

In the eighth round on Thursday, Swati meets Sangeetha, Anupama takes on Bhagyashree, Nisha faces Dolan, Sujatha clashes with Arthie, Prathiba plays Priya, and Baisakhi crosses swords with Saimeera.

On the second board today, Prathiba seemed to be surprised when Sangeetha began with Reti Opening, and she decided to reply with Dutch Defence. She was in no real trouble until she thought a knight sacrifice, for the `g3' pawn, on the 16th move was a good idea. There was little in the game for her after that blunder.

Sangeetha, promising but inconsistent, took her knight to `d5' on the 18th move as a counter sacrifice, which was a good move. Prathiba could not have captured the knight, for it would have led to immediate and heavy loss of material. She resigned on the 29th move, with mate just a move away.

Quick draws

On the top board, Swati and Bhagyashree, both of whom hail from the Maharashtra town of Sangli, played just 13 moves of Caro-Kann Defence before they agreed not to tax their brains too much. Watching them on the third board was Anupama, a long-time rival of Bhagyashree, and she also decided that enough was enough, signing the peace treaty with a much younger Priya. Their game, played from a Bishop Opening, lasted 14 moves.

Nisha, who adopted Sicilian Najdorf against Nimmy A. George of Kerala, went a piece up on the 37th move. Though it took White 63 moves to resign, she had lost the game long ago.

The results (seventh round):

Swati Ghate (LIC) 6.5 drew with Bhagyashree Thipsay (IDBI) 5.5; M.R. Sangeetha (TN) 5.5 bt Y. Prathiba (Chromepet Chess Academy, Chennai) 5; P. Priya (TN) 5 drew with Anupama Gokhale (PSCB) 5; Nimmy A. George (Ker) 4 lost to Nisha Mohota (LIC) 5; Aarthie Ramaswamy (Wipro) 5 bt Bindu Saritha (LIC) 4; Dolan Champa Bose (Bih) 5 bt Kiran Agrawal (Chg) 4; Saimeera Ravi (IB) 5 bt Amruta Mokal (Mah) 4; Kruttika Nadig (Mah) 4.5 drew with C. Delphin (TN) 4.5; Pazha Sivakami (TN) 4 lost to S. Sujatha (Emanuel Chess Centre, Chennai) 5; D. Harika (AP) 4.5 bt Tania Sachdev (Del) 3.5.

P. Malar Selvi (T. Nagar Chess Academy, Chennai) 4 drew with Anuradha Beniwal (Har) 4; Arpi Shah (Guj) 4.5 bt S.R. Radha (PSCB) 3.5; Baisakhi Das (Ben) 4.5 bt N. Sandhya (Ker) 3.5; M. Rajadarsini (Emanuel) 4.5 bt Mrunalini Kunte Aurangabadkar (IDBI) 3; Krishna Sudhakar Babu (AICF) 3 lost to Safira Shanaz (TN) 4; S. Nabeela Farheen (TN) 4 bt Eesha Karvade (Mah) 3; Swati Mohota (Ben) 3 lost to Anuprita Patil (Mah) 4; R. Mahima (Chromepet) 4 bt M. Kasthuri (TN) 3; N. Raghavi (Capa Chess Academy, Chennai) 3 lost to L. Iswarya Shobana (Capa) 4; Sanjana Raj (MP) 3 lost to Jayashree Sankpal (LIC) 4; Cija Augustus (Ker) 2.5 lost to Sreeparna Chakraborty (Ben) 3.5.

E. Sheena (Ker) 3.5 bt Manjula V. James (Ker) 2.5; Prasanna Shivasamy (Goa) 3.5 bt Aneegha Tahseen (T. Nagar) 2.5; Alka Das (Bih) 3 bt Aswathi Balagopalan (Ker) 2; Sasmita Bhoi (Ori) 2 lost to Anila Shah (Guj) 3; V. Mrunalini (Kar) 2.5 drew with S. Sushma (Kar) 2.5; S. Anushya (Pon) 2 lost to P. Sudha (Ker) 3; Shah Jabeen (MP) 1.5 lost to Pooja Rathode (Chg) 2.5; Joyce Maria Simoes (Goa) 1.5 drew with Sofia V. James (Lak) 1.5; T.K. Reshma (Lak) 1 lost to Sneha Hobble (Goa) 2; Sreedevi Sivadas (Lak) 2 bt Swetha (AP) 0.

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