Nisha emerges sole leader

Tenhipalam, May 16: International Woman Master Nisha Mohota was more than a match for defending champion Swati Ghate of Maharashtra as the ...

Tenhipalam, May 16: International Woman Master Nisha Mohota was more than a match for defending champion Swati Ghate of Maharashtra as the West Bengal girl posted a thumping 40-move victory in the fifth round of the 11th National Junior Under-20 Girls Chess Championship at the Calicut University Seminar Complex here today.

Nisha Mohota who played Caro-Kann defence, wrested the initiative in the 24th move with a decisive rook versus knight exchange to emerge the sole leader with 4.5 points. Swati had earlier overlooked a juicy queen check at the starting stage and considerably weakened the position of her pieces.

After a well-planned rook sacrifice on move 38, Nisha went for the final assault with a brilliant queen-rook mating raid. Swati resigned soon after.

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Playing black against M Sai Meera of Indian Bank in a Sicilian Pelikan variation, IWM S Vijayalakshmi of Tamil Nadu was through with a knight sacrifice on the 16th move. Sai Meera, with two pawns up, had just to play a safe endgame. But Vijayalakshmi, deftly moved the rook to apply pressure through frequent checks. The Indian Bank player had to protect her king and in the process surrendered two important pawns as her rook was cramped. Vijayalakshmi’s pawn position improved and Sai Meera gave up on the 55th move.

Kerala’s Sasinas Haritha was all at sea after Tamil Nadu’s Safira Shahnaz, who chose Sicilian defence, sacrificed her knight on the 28th move and eliminated the g2 pawn. Haritha then lost her rook on the 38th. With a clear double bishop advantage, Safira boldly went for the queen exchange on the 41st move. Safira had six pawns in vantage positions as against Haritha’s three at the end.

N Sandhya of Kerala employed Pirc defence against her Tamil Nadu opponent S Sujatha’s Kings Indian defence. Sandhya, with a clear aggressive intention, focussed her pieces on the rival pawns in the middle game. This rattled the Tamil Nadu player who soon ended up with just two pawns and knight against four pawns and bishop. Sangeetha quit after 59 moves.

Important results (fifth round): Swati Ghate (Mah) 4 lost to Nisha Mohota (WB) 4.5, M Sai Meera (IB) 3 lost to S Vijayalakshmi (TN) 4, Sasinas Haritha (Ker) 3 lost to Safira Shahnaz (TN) 4, Pallavi Shah (Mah) 3.5 drew Aarthie Ramasamy (TN) 3.5, S Meenakshi (TN) 3 lost to Nivedita Sagade (Mah) 4, Swati Mohota (WB) 4 bt PR Rashmee (Ktk) 2.5, S Sujatha (TN) 2.5 lost to N Sandhya (Ker) 3.5, PL Sivakami (TN) 2 lost to Humaira Qamar (AP) 3, MR Sangeetha (TN) 3 bt Ayesha Qamar (AP) 2, N Geethamani (TN) 2 lost to B Anuradha (Har) 3, Aswini Pachapurkar (Mah) 2.5 drew Y Prathiba (TN) 2.5, Girija Rao (Raj) 2 lost to Sreeparna Chakraborty (WB) 3.