Four share lead, Swati stuns Eesha

Four share lead, Swati stuns Eesha
By RR Vasudevan

Woman Grandmaster Swati Ghate (LIC) stunned top seed IM Eesha Karavade (PSPB), moving into joint lead with 4.5 points after the fifth round of the 43rd National Women Challengers Chess Championship 2016 at Nehru Stadium, Chennai here today. Swati shares the top spot with second seed IM Vijayalakshmi S (Air India), WGM Soumya Swaminathan (PSPB) and WIM Vaishali R (TN) respectively.

Following the leaders half a point behind at 4.0 points were nine players including WGMs Mary Ann Gomes and Kiran Manisha Mohanty, among others.

The top board board game between Soumya and Vaishali turned out to be quick 21 move draw, as Vaishali caught Soumya unawares in perpetual queen attack. In the game of the day, veteran LIC star from Pune, Swati Ghate brought down top seed IM Eesha Karavade.in an attacking French game.

With six more rounds to go, there is still a lot to play for. The interesting pairings of the next round pit Vijayalakshmi against Soumya, while Vaishali crossed sword with Swati.

Important Results (Round 5) Soumya Swaminathan (4.5) drew with Vaishali R (4.5), Swati Ghate (4.5) bt Karavade Eesha (3.5), Michelle Catherina P (3.5) lost to Vijayalakshmi S (4.5), Gomes Mary Ann (4) drew with Kiran Manisha Mohanty (4), Bala Kannamma P (4) bt Pratyusha Bodda (3), Divya Lakshmi R (3.5) drew with Mohota Nisha (3.5), Mahalakshmi M (4) bt Priyanka Kumari (3), Sunyuktha C M N (3) lost to Srija Seshadri (4), Nandhidhaa P V (3.5) drew with Chitlange Sakshi (3.5), Nisha N Patkar (3) lost to Lasya G (4)