The Hindu : Sport : Harika and Tania Sachdev share lead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 10, 2007
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Sport

Sport

Harika and Tania Sachdev share lead

Rakesh Rao

PUNE: Favourite D. Harika and defending champion Tania Sachdev scored tactical victories with white pieces to stay in the joint lead after five rounds of the 34th Women National ‘A’ chess championship at the SIMS complex here on Friday.

With six rounds remaining, Harika and Tania lead the 28-player field with four points each.

On a day when six players started as leaders, Harika produced a tactical stroke in the middle game against Sai Meera. The bishop move threatened to rip open Meera’s kingside and expose the castled king to further danger.

A studious-looking Sai Meera studied the situation and resigned gracefully after realising that she could neither save a minor piece or escape defeat that appeared inevitable after 24 moves.

A similar position emerged in the 30-move game involving Tania and former champion Aarthie Ramaswamy on the third board.

In the middle game of this Queen’s Gambit Declined battle, Tania invited a series of exchanges that led one of her central pawns to the seventh rank.

A puzzled Aarthie then walked into deeper trouble with Tania forcing a strategic exchange of queens that in turn meant an impending checkmate.

A hapless Aarthie gave up. Before Tania joined Harika in the lead, the second board contest between the two other overnight leaders, Woman Grandmasters Eesha Karavade and former winner Nisha Mohota ended in a draw in 34 moves.

Eesha and Nisha were joined at 3.5 points by the victorious duo of Swati Ghate and Kiran Manisha Mohanty.

The results (fifth round): D. Harika (4) bt Sai Meera (3); Eesha Karavade (3.5) drew with Nisha Mohota (3.5); Tania Sachdev (4) bt Aarthie Ramaswamy (3); Amrutha Mokal (2.5) lost to Swati Ghate (3.5); Kiran Manisha Mohanty (3.5) bt Pon N. Krithika (2.5); Soumya Swaminathan (3) drew with Mary Ann Gomes (3); Anuprita Patil (2.5) drew with Nimmy George (3).

Syed Nabeela Farheen (2) lost to Padmini Rout (3); P. Priya (2.5) bt S. Harini (2); R. Preethi (2) drew with M. R. Sangeetha (2); Dhyani Dave (1.5) lost to Ch. Divyasri (2.5); Baisakhi Das (1) lost to Rucha Pujari (2.5); C. H. Savetha (1) lost to P. Uthra (1.5); Swati Mohota (1) drew with S. Athirai (1).

Fourth round: Aarthie drew with Harika; Eesha drew with Tania; Sai Meera bt Kiran; Nisha bt Anuprita; Krithiika drew with Amruta; Nimmy bt Nabeela; Swati Ghate bt Priya; Mary bt Dhyani; Sangeetha lost to Soumya; Padmini bt Baisakhi; Rucha drew with Preethi; Harini bt Swati Mohota; Divyasri bt Uthra; Athirai lost to Savetha.

Sixth round pairings: Tania-Harika; Nisha-Swati Ghate; Kiran-Eesha; Padmini-Aarthie; Mary-Sai Meera; Nimmy-Soumya; Divyasri-Amruta; Krithika-Anuprita; Rucha-Priya; Baneela-Preethi; Sangeetha-Harini; Uthra-Dhyani; Savetha-Swati Mohota; Athirai-Baisakhi.

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