Sreeparna stuns Anjali

Third seed Bhagyashree Thipsay (2210) of IDBI and seventh seed Nisha Mohota (2080) of West Bengal dropped half a point each as both drew their matches against unrated opponents.

PR Rekha of Karnataka and Purabhi Singha of Assam share the second spot (3.5 points) with Bhagyashree and Nisha while 16 players are third with three points.

Sreeparna played the Yugoslav variation of the Sicilian defence. Both players castled on the opposite sides and started the rival Kings with the pawns. Sreeparna sacrificed a pawn and then a minor piece by doubling her rooks on the 25th move.

Though it opened a diagonal for Sreeparna, Anjali had chances for counter attack. In that bid, Anjali made a bishop move which turned out to be a blunder and was forced to resign.

Aarthie, who finished among the top in the previous National B, faced Saheli’s French defence. Aarthie offered an exchange sacrifice but Saheli refused it, created a passer by returning back the exchange. In the end-game, Saheli had two more pawns as Aarthie resigned after 67 moves.

On the second board, the Bhagyashree-Rekha clash was dead draw. There were no pieces or pawns exchanged and though Rekha’s pieces were advanced, there was no scope for any attacks. They split points after 24 moves.

On the fourth board, Purabi Singh was a piece up in a game arising out of Dutch Defence, but a wrong pawn push allowed Nisha to retrieve the position and claim a theoretical draw.

Fourth seed Mrunalini Kunte (2175) of IDBI, who suffered a shock defeat yesterday, was held to a draw by Ashwini Pacharpurkar of Maharashtra. Both had opposite coloured bishops and same number of pawns in a game arising out of Queen’s Gambit.

In two other surprising results, Swati Mohota (2135) drew S Madhavi Lata while Nivedita Sagade (2080) of Maharashtra lost on time to R Hemalatha of Karnataka.

FOURTH ROUND RESULTS

Aarthie Ramaswamy (TN) 3 points lost to Saheli Dhar-Barua (SE Rly) 4; PR Rekha (Kar) 3.5 drew with Bhagyashree Thipsay (IDBI) 3.5; Purabhi Singha (Asm) 3.5 bt Nisha Mohota (WB) 3.5; Anjali Palande (Mah) 3 lost to Sreeparna Chakborty (WB) 4; S Madhavi Latha (AP) 3.5 drew with Swati Mohota (WB) 3; Mrunalini Kunte (IDBI) 2.5 drew with Ashwini Pacharpurkar (WB) 3; N Sarita Reddy (TN) 3 bt Ashwini Kulkarni (Mah) 2; Pallavi Shah (Mah) 3 bt Anuradha Beniwal (Haryana) 2; Neha Singh (Bihar) 3 bt K Humpy (AP) 2; M Sai Meera (BSB) 3 bt Abha Thakur (Mah) 2; Mugdha Dolas (Mah) 2 lost to Pushpalata Mangal (BSB) 3; Nivedita Sagade (Mah) 2 lost to R Hemalatha (Kar) 3; Kavita (AP) 2.5 drew with Preetha Subash (Kerala) 2; Snehal Mahajan (Mah) 3 bt L Sundari Devi (Manipur) 2; Humaira Qamar (AP) 2 lost to PV Nirmala (TN) 3; S Subhasini (AP) 3 bt Swati Sengupta (WB) 2; S Sujata (TN) 3 bt PR Rashmi (Kar) 2; S Cynthia (TN) 3 bt CV Rajalakshmi (TN) 2; Zeel Mehta (Gujarat) 2.5 drew with MR Sangita (TN) 2.5; Manasi Dadarkar (Mah) 2 drew with E Sheena (Kerala) 2.