Chennai: Asian under-16 girls champion Lakshmi Sahithi of Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh, stormed into sole lead by posting her fifth straight victory in the 33rd St. Joseph's National Women `B' Chess Championship here on Friday.

Lakshmi Sahithi exploited the strategic mistake of Sai Meera of Bank Sports Board on the 19th turn to win in 50 comfortable moves with the white pieces. The weak pawn move by black allowed Lakshmi to inject fresh fire into her attack and win the black queen for two minor pieces.

Lakshmi, who can still play in the under-14 section this year, has won five National and three Asian age group titles so far. She leads with full five points and is ahead of the 102-player field by a slender half point. A ninth-standard student of Viswakavi School, Lakshmi faces top seed Nimmy George of Kerala in the sixth round on Saturday morning. "I have no coach, I learn by myself," said the leader from Krishna district.

Preethi second

Tied for the second to fourth places on 4.5 points are: R. Preethi, Pon N. Krithikha (both TN), Nimmy George (Ker). Sai Meera (BSB), P. Priya, R. Mahima, N. Raghavi, R. Sangeetha, Jennitha Anto (all TN), Ketaki Kulkarni (Mah), Padmini Rout (Ori), Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa) are closely behind with four points apiece. Six rounds remain to be played.

Preethi, playing white, had to be careful in the middlegame that followed the Giuoco Piano opening, but had an extra rook pawn, which was drawn in the pawn ending.

Pon N. Krithika played the rarely seen Alekhine defence with black and outplayed the experienced J.E. Kavitha in an all-Chennai clash to jump to joint second place. Krithikha played to a straight attacking plan and hunted down the white king in 35 moves.

In the upsets corner, two players from the previous National `A' suffered major blows. Kiran Monisha Mohanty of Orissa and defending champion Supriya Maji of Bengal lost their second game in as many days to Jennitha Anto of Trichy and R. Mahima of Madurai. Important results (round 5): R. Preethi (TN) 4.5 drew Nimmy A.G (Ker) 4.5; Lakshmi Sahithi (AP) 5 bt Sai Meera (BSB) 4; P. Priya (TN) 4 drew N. Raghavi (TN) 4, J.E. Kavitha (TN) 3.5 lost to Pon N. Krithika (TN) 4.5; R. Mahima (TN) 4 bt S. Maji (Ben) 3; R. Sangeetha (TN) 4 bt S. Sujatha (TN) 3, Ketaki Kulkarni (Mah) 4 bt Sivasankari (TN) 3; Baisakhi Das (Jha) 3.5 drew Kanuri Tejaswi (AP) 3.5; E. Sheena (Ker) 3 lost to Padmini Rout (Ori) 4; Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa) 4 bt Amirthavalli (TN) 3; Jennitha Anto (TN) 4 bt Kiran Monisha Mohanty (Ori) 3; Saheli Nath (Ben) 3.5 bt P.K. Jayashree (TN) 2.5; Nabeela Farheen (TN) 2.5 lost to Nandhini Saripalli (Goa) 3.5; Mitali Patil (Mah) 3 drew Iswarya Shobana (TN) 3.

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