Padmini Rout, Swati Ghate Maintain Lead

Padmini Rout, Swati Ghate Maintain Lead

By Arvind Aaron

Defending champion Padmini Rout of Odisha defended a piece sacrifice well to defeat Soumya Swaminathan of PSPB in the eighth round of the Ramratna National Women’s Premier at the Bengal Art Gallery in Kolkata on November 21, 2015.

After this eventful round, Swati Ghate and Padmini Rout are leading with 6.5/8. They maintained the top place with crucial wins. Three rounds remain to be played.

Swati Ghate won a pawn early in the game. When Michelle fought back and equalised the material, black gave up two pieces for a rook and went down in 52 moves.

The next round brings Padmini Rout and Swati Ghate face to face and it will be a title deciding encounter.

Pratyusha jumped to third place on 5.5 points after beating Priyanka K with the black pieces.

In a well contested game, Vaishali beat Bhakti Kulkarni in a rooks and minor piece ending to join her opponent in fifth spot.

Former champion Tania Sachdev improved her placing with a 34-move win over Neha Singh. Gradually improving her Samish attack against the king’s Indian defence, Tania finished with a spectacular bishop sacrifice.

The results (round eight): Soumya Swaminathan (PSPB) 5 lost to Padmini Rout (Odi) 6.5; R Vaishali (TN) 4.5 bt Bhakti Kulkarni (AI) 4.5; N Priyanka (AP) 3.5 drew with V Varshini (TN) 3.5; Swati Ghate (LIC) 6.5 bt P Michelle Catherina (TN) 3.5; Priyanka K (TN) 0.5 lost to B Pratyusha (AP) 5.5; Tania Sachdev (AI) 3.5 bt Neha Singh (Bih) 1.