Chennai, Dec 4: Former national champions Saritha Reddy and Mrunalini Kunte did not have an ideal start in the 25th Sportstar National B women's chess championship on Friday. Saritha failed to complete moves against Humaira while Mrunalini tried hard to wriggle out of a big hole with P Priya. But the youngster kept her composure to pocket the point after nearly seven hours and 144 moves.Rekha went for an interesting piece sacrifice against Anupama Gokhale's Janeisch Schlieman but failed to generate sufficient counterplay to trouble her opponent. By Move 20, Anupama tucked her king to safety. With nothing left to play for, Rekha resigned on the 28th move.Third seed Saheli Dhar-Barua shattered the king-side pawn-structure of Mugdha Dolas in the 20th move from a French Defence Tarrasch Variation. Mugdha was forced to weaken her pawns, which were easy pickings for the Bengal girl, who converted the advantage in the 42nd move.Results (1st round):Saritha Reddy (0) lost to Humaira (1), PR Rekha (0)lost to Anupama Gokhale (1), Saheli Dhar (1) bt Mugdha Dolas (0), P Priya (1) bt Mrunalini Kunte (0), Safira Shanaz (1) bt M Rajadarshini (0), S Nabeela (0) lost to Koneru Humpy (1), Saimeera Ravi (1) bt S Madhavi Latha (0), N Vinuthuna (0.5) drew Sushma Singh (0.5), S Meenakshi (1) bt Isaiamudhu (0), Abha Thakur (0) lost to Swati Mohota (1), Bindu K Saritha (0) lost to RA Mahima (1), H Nilavoli (0) lost to B Sheena (1), SR Radha (1) bt S Sudha Lakshmi (0), P Malar Selvi (0) lost to Anjali Palande (1), Kiran Agarwal (0.5) drew Preeti Bisoz (0.5), Deepali (0) lost to Aarthie Ramaswamy (1), Arpi K Shah (1) bt B Sindhu (0), J Rajasuriya (0) lost to Neha Singh (1), CH Kavitha (0) lost to M Kasturi (1), Aparna Krishnan (1) bt PV Nirmala (0).
