Panaji, Sept 12:
IM Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi (2314) of Air India took the sole lead at the end of the 8th round with the score of 7 points at the 41st National Women Challengers Chess Championship 2014 being played at Boxing Hall Pedem Sports Complex Pedem Mapusa Goa.
Vijayalakshmi is closely followed by WGM Padmini Raut (2354) of Orisa, IM Nisha Mohota (2248) of PSPB and WGM Swati Ghate (2234) of LIC with the score of 6.5 points.
The game between IM Vijayalakshmi and WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty started with New Grunfield Opening which lasted for 63 moves. Veteran Vijayalakshmi played an energetic game with white pieces against WGM Kiran.
According to former National Champion IM Vijayalakshmi, it was an “unclear and complicated position”.
But on move no 54, she took advantage of accepting the Queen exchange offered by her opponent WGM Kiran and from then onwards she became pawn up and it was a clear cut end game win.
In yet another game between the two WGMs, IM Nisha Mohota and WGM Swati Ghate on the second board, the former opted for Catalan Opening.
After the middle game exchanges, Nisha was maintaining the space advantage, but Swati, a former Olympian put up a stiff resistance to force a draw after 43 moves by repeating the moves.
WGM Padmini Raut, a medallist in Tromsko Chess Olympiad 2014 playing on 4th board scored a fluent victory over Pratusha Bodda of AP in Sicilian defence in 39 moves.
There are 8 players in 3rd position with 6 points, WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty (2231) of LIC, Bala Kanamma (1984), Nimmy George (2118) of Kerala Lakshmi Praneetha (2005) of AP, WFM Swati Mohata of West Bengal, WFM Bindhu Sarita of LIC, G Lasya and Varsini V of Tamil Nadu.
WIM Ivana Furtado ( 2182) of Goa drew with Bala Kannama of Tamil Nadu, while WGM Bhakti Kulkarni defeated Mili Ghosh of West Bengal.
They are on 5.5 points alongwith WGM Swamya Swaminathan of PSPB, WGM Aarthi Ramaswamy of Air India, Neha Sing of Bihar, Pratusha Bodda (2033) of AP, WFM GK Monnisha of Tamil Nadu, Pranali Dharia of Maharashtra, Harini S of Tamil Nadu, WFM Arpita Mukherjee ( 1883) of West Bengal, Harshita Gudatantti of AP, Anjana Krishna of Kerala, Hinduja Reddy of AP, WFM Tarini Goyal of Chandigarh.
Among the other Goan players WFM Riya Savant, Nandhini Saripalli, Adittee Prabhugaonkar and Aishwarya Thorat are on 5 points each. (PTI)
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