Safira wins again to share top spot with Viji

Meenakshi S and Pratibha Y fought it out for 71 moves in the Grunfeld Defenceagainst the King’s Indian. After an interesting and tense middle game, Pratibhafound herself with a bad end game to handle. Meenakshi made no mistake in theend game and Pratibha resigned after white’s 71st move.

Compared to last year when she stood 10th in the placings, Meenakshi hasperformed remarkably well in this tournament. She shares the second spot withSaheli Dhar Barua. She faces a tough game against Pallavi Shah tomorrow with the black pieces. Pallavi has returned to form. If Meenakshi manages a draw then she might well be on the flight to Istanbul along with her sister Vijayalakshmi to represent India at the Chess Olympiad.

Pallavi has a tough 12th round against Saheli. So she will be looking for anoutright win. The game is going to be a crucial one for both of them.

The other crucial match tomorrow is between Anupama Gokhale and Swati Ghate.

Swati has only two matches left, the last round being her bye. If she wins bothher games, she will tally 7.5 points. Swati has not had the ideal tournament arunner up would have desired.

Saheli and Bhagyashree Thipsay worked out a drawish variation in the RuyLopez/Schliemann/Berger variation in 13 moves and shared the point. Bhagyashree has now 5 points. She looks to be in the danger of losing her position in the Indian team.

Anupama Gokhale had little difficulty in beating Neha Singh who offered theBlumenfeld Counter Gambit, which the former ignored.

Neha made several weak moves and virtually lost the game when she played 29… Qa4. Anupama wrapped up the game quickly thratening mate with 31 Qxf6. There was nothing left in the game for Neha to continue.

Swati Ghate took 41 moves to subdue young Baisakhi Das in the Spanish Opening to gain her first win in the last six rounds. Safira Sahanaz easily overcame S Sujatha’s challenge in 37 moves deploying the Torre attack. With the win Safira is now tied with Vijayalakshmi with 6.5 points. Viji had a bye today.Pallavi Shah overcame World Junior Under-18 champion Aarthie Ramaswamy’schallenge in the Sicilian/Scheveningen. With the win she shares the third spotwith Swati Ghate.

Results of 10th round (Points in brackets): Vijayalakshmi S (6.5) bye, Safira Shahnaz (6.5) bt S Sujatha (3.5), Meenakshi S (6) bt Y Pratibha (3),Saheli Dhar Barua (6) drew with Bhagyashree Thipsay (5) Pallavi Shah (5.5) bt Aarthie R (4), Swati Ghate (5.5) bt Baisakhi Das (1), Anupama Gokhale (5) bt Neha Singh (2.5).

Game of the day:

White:R. Aarthie Black: Pallavi Shah Sicilian Defence/Scheveningen
1.e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e6 7. f3 b5 8. Qd2Nbd7 9. g4 h6 10. O-O-O Bb7 11. h4 b4 12. Nce2 d5 13. exd5 Bxd5 14. Nf4 Bxa2 15. Nc6 Qc7 16. Nxb4 Qa5 17. Nxa2 Qxa2 18. Qc3 Qa1+ 19. Kd2 Qa4 20. Qc4 Qa5+ 21. Ke2 Ne5 22. Qd4 Rc8 23. c3 Nc4 24. b4 Qc7 25. Kf2 Nxe3 26. Qxe3 Qxc3 27. Qxc3 Rxc3 28. Bxa6 Bxb4 29. Bb5+ Ke7 30. g5 Bc5+ 31. Kg2 Rc2+ 32. Be2 Nh5 33. Nxh5 Rxe2+ 34. Kg3 Bf2+ 35. Kg4 hxg5 36. Kxg5 f6+ 37. Kg4 f5+ 38. Kg5 Be3+ 0-1 White resigned.