Date:23/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/23/stories/2008122357101700.htm

Sport - Chess

Tania in joint lead with Kruttika

Kamesh Srinivasan

NEW DELHI: Tania Sachdev regained the lead with a victory over Pon N. Krithika in the fifth round of the Parsvnath 35th National ‘A’ women’s chess championship at the Russian Centre of Science and Culture here on Monday.

The 22-year-old Air-India girl, Tania was up three pawns as she steered the Ruy Lopez opening to her advantage despite playing black, and sealed the victory in 50 moves.

“She is talented, but perhaps it was difficult to play for long. It was comfortable in the end for me,” said Tania, quite pleased to get back to the driver’s seat after a shock defeat to Soumya Swaminathan in the second round.

The overnight leader, Kruttika Nadig, drew with Padmini Rout to be on par with Tania with 3.5 points. Kruttika had a bishop for three pawns, in the end game following Sicilian Najdorf, but opted to sign peace, rather than try too hard to find a breakthrough, or hope for an error from the World under-14 champion, in the 61-move battle of wits.

“It was very complicated. Anything could have happened, and I fought a lot. I didn’t want to take the risk with black. She played well,” said Kruttika.

First win

Nisha Mohota and Bhakti Kulkarni tasted victory for the first time in the tournament.

Nisha served another jolt to former champion Swati Ghate with her fine understanding of the Caro-Kann defence.

The 11th standard student from Goa, Bhakti had to be patient in a 101-move marathon against the Asian junior champion Mary Ann Gomes, before reaping her reward.

Drawn games

In other matches, Soumya drew with Kiran Manisha Mohanty in 37 moves and Eesha Karavade had a quick 22-move draw against Amrutha Mokal.

Soumya, Eesha and Amrutha were half a point behind the leaders with three points each, while Mary and Nisha had 2.5 each. Bhakti pulled on par with Swati with two points, while Krithika, Padmini and Kiran had 1.5 points each.

The results (fifth round): Eesha Karavade 3 drew with Amrutha Mokal 3; Kiran Manisha Mohanty 1.5 drew with Soumya Swaminathan 3; Pon N. Krithika 1.5 lost to Tania Sachdev 3.5; Bhakti Kulkarni 2 bt Mary Ann Gomes 2.5; Swati Ghate 2 lost to Nisha Mohota 2.5; Padmini Rout 1.5 drew with Kruttika Nadig 3.5.