The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Sai Meera scores two tactical wins

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 26, 2006
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Chess

Sai Meera scores two tactical wins

Arvind Aaron

Chennai: Sai Meera Ravi of Indian Bank, Chennai scored two tactical victories on the penultimate day to wrest sole lead at the end of the 10th round of the 33rd St. Joseph's National women's B chess championship here on Monday.

Sai Meera sacrificed a rook for bishop to down Mahima to take her tally to eight points. Tied for second to fifth places on 7.5 points are R. Mahima, R. Preethi, Saheli Nath and Padmini Rout.

The top 20 will advance to the women's A after Tuesday's final round. All these six players are considered safe and would be qualifying even if they lose the last round. As such, all six players could be seen fighting for the title.

Preethi impresses

Padmini Rout and Saheli Nath drew after the position got locked and neither side had a chance to break. Madurai's Preethi continued to impress after she beat Priya by winning a nicely played ending.

After Priya's defeat, all 102 players in the event had lost at least one game.

Asian under-16 champion Lakshmi Sahithi could not arrest the sequence of defeats as Kiran Mohanty checkmated her with a bishop on the 38th turn.

Sai Meera, Kiran Mohanty and Baisakhi Das were impressive winning both games on the day.

J.E. Kavitha and Lakshmi Sahithi put their qualification in doubt after they suffered two defeats on Monday.

Important results (round 10): Sai Meera (BSB) 8 bt R. Mahima (TN) 7.5, Padmini Rout (Ori) 7.5 drew with Saheli Nath (Ben) 7.5, R. Preethi (TN) 7.5 bt P. Priya (TN) 7, Nimmy A.G. (Ker) 7 drew with S. Harini (TN) 7, Kiran Mohanty (Ori) 7 bt Lakshmi Sahithi (AP) 6, J.E. Kavitha (TN) 6 lost to Baisakhi Das (Jha) 7, Iswarya Shobana (TN) 6.5 drew with Bhakti K. (Goa) 6.5, Jennitha Anto (TN) 6.5 drew with R. Sangeetha (TN) 6.5, Pon N. Krithika (TN) 6.5 drew with N. Raghavi (TN) 6.5, Nabeela Farheen (TN) 6.5 bt Kanuri Tejaswi (AP) 6.

Round 9: Saheli Nath bt Preethi, Mahima bt Kavitha, Priya bt Lakshmi Sahithi, Raghavi lost to Sai Meera, Sangeetha lost to Padmini Rout, Bhakti lost to Nimmy, Harini bt Uthra, Ketaki lost to Kiran Mohanty, Ishwarya Shobana bt Mohana Priya.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport