Swati Ghate joins Vijayalakshmi in lead

Swati Ghate joins Vijayalakshmi in lead
By RR Vasudevan

Woman Grandmaster Swati Ghate (LIC) joined IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman (Air India) in sharing the lead with 7.5 points after the ninth round of the 43rd National Women Challengers Chess Championship 2016 at Nehru Stadium, Chennai here today. Following the leading duo at 7.0 points were WIMs Vaishali R (TN) and Michelle Catherina P (Air India) respectively.

The top board Vaishali – Vijayalakshmi turned out to be a Sicilian game, which saw a quiet and quick draw. The second board game turned out to be a blast, as Swati was all aggression from the word go. The French game saw Mahalakshmi trying to match Swati with some counter attack on the queen-side. But Swati’s attack was faster, threatened checkmate, forcing the Chennai girl to resign by 34th move.

With two rounds to go, the battle has heated up and we in for a gala of thrilling action tomorrow and the day after.

Important Results (Round 9)  Vaishali R (7) drew with Vijayalakshmi S (7.5), Swati Ghate (7.5) bt Mahalakshmi M (6), Michelle Catherina P (7) bt Tarini Goyal (6), Arpita Mukherjee (6.5) drew with Kiran Manisha Mohanty (6.5), Karavade Eesha (6) drew with Bala Kannamma P (6.5), Soumya Swaminathan (6.5) bt Saranya J (5.5), Gomes Mary Ann (6) drew with Chitlange Sakshi (6), Varshini V (6.5) bt Priyanka K (5.5), Priyanka Kumari (5.5) lost to Lasya G (6.5), Divya Lakshmi R (5.5) lost to Srija Seshadri (6).