Lakshmi Praneetha Emerges Leader At Sangli

Lakshmi Praneetha Emerges Leader At Sangli
By Arvind Aaron

Lakshmi Praneetha of Andhra Pradesh beat Hinduja Reddy of Telegana to emerge as the surprise leader with two points from as many rounds in the National Women’s Premier Chess Championship at Sangli on Sunday.

Lakshmi Praneetha trapped the bishop of Hinduja to win and collect maximum two points. She became the first sole leader of the prestigious event for women.

Round two saw four decisive games, one more than the previous round. Top seed Mary Ann Gomes won her first game against Varshini to move to the joint second place with 1.5 points.

Many of the contenders for the title are sharing the second position. It includes Nisha Mohota, Padmini Rout, S Vijayalakshmi and Bhakti Kulkarni besides Mary Ann Gomes.

Draw number one in an all-play-all is good as it starts with two white games. Varshini has not made the most of it and lost both games. Nine rounds remain to be played in this all-play-all.

The results (round two): K Lakshmi Praneetha (AP) 2 bt Hinduja Reddy (Tel) 0; Nimmy George (Ker) 0.5 drew with Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa) 1.5; Ivana Furtado (Goa) 1 drew with S Vijayalakshmi (TN) 1.5; B Pratyusha (Tel) 0.5 lost to Padmini Rout (Odi) 1.5; Nisha Mohota (WB) 1.5 bt Swati Ghate (Mah) 0.5; V Varshini (TN) 0 lost to Mary Ann Gomes (WB) 1.5.