Three players share lead

Tenhipalam, May 14: Defending champion Swati Ghate of Maharashtra moved her pieces to a set plan to outsmart Aarthie Ramaswamy of Tamil Nad...

Tenhipalam, May 14: Defending champion Swati Ghate of Maharashtra moved her pieces to a set plan to outsmart Aarthie Ramaswamy of Tamil Nadu in the third round of the 11th National Junior (under-20) Girls Chess Championship at the Calicut University Seminar Complex here today.

There seemed nothing the erratic Aarthie, who played Sicilian defence, could do to mess up the strategy of Swati. The gifted Maharashtra player, who has been in the midst of a splendid winning run, launched a fierce Queen-knight attack on the Kingside. As Aarthie slipped into a minus position on the 18th move after going for a wrong knight exchange, Swati claimed a piece on the 28th move. Swati wrapped it up on the 38th with a super move Qb4 which saw the black king cramped between the knight and queen.

Swati shared the lead with International Woman Masters S Vijayalakshmi and Nisha Mohota. Tamil Nadu’s Vijayalakshmi was gifted’ a victory by her dear young sister S Meenakshi, while Nisha Mohota converted an equal position into a fine victory over Kerala’s Sasinas Haritha.

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Pallavi Shah of Maharashtra could not join the leaders as she was involved in a draw with state-mate Nivedita Sagade in just 19 moves.

Results (3rd round): S Meenakshi (TN) 2 lost to S Vijayalakshmi (TN) 3, Swati Ghate (Mah) 3 bt Aarthie Ramaswamy (TN) 2, Pallavi Shah (Mah) 2.5 drew Nivedita Sagade (Mah) 2.5, Sasinas Haritha (Ker) 2 lost to Nisha Mohota (WB) 3, Swati Mohota (WB) 2.5 bt Humaira Qamar (AP) 2, Zeal Mehta (Guj) 1 lost to S Shahnaz (TN)n2, M Sai Meera (IB) 2 bt Bhavana Parekh (Raj) 1, A Kulkarni (Mah) 1.5 drew P L Sivakami (TN) 1.5, M R Sangeetha (TN) 2 bt N Geethamani (TN) 1, Benju Shah (Guj) 1 lost to B Anuradha (Har) 2, Prajeesha (Ker) 1 lost to A Pachapurkar (Mah) 2.