Chennai: Defending champion Swati Ghate of LIC (Pune) wrested sole lead by defeating Dronavalli Harika of Guntur in the seventh round of the 33rd Win TV National women's `A' chess championship here on Tuesday. All the five players from Pune won and stole the day's honours.

In full flow

Swati Ghate was at her best against the Sicilian defence of Harika. Selecting an offbeat opening variation with white, Swati peeled off the pawn cover for the black king before winning a rook and the game in 29 moves. Swati is on 5.5 points . Tied for the second place on five points are S. Vijayalakshmi, S. Meenakshi (both IA) and Tania Sachdev (Del).

Woman Grandmaster S. Meenakshi drew her second quick game in a row. This time in seven moves against her more famous elder sister S. Vijayalakshmi. The other sister duo of Swati and Nisha Mohota already drew in an earlier round.

The 2004 National women's champion Nisha Mohota did not obtain any initiative with the white pieces and Tania Sachdev played a 22-move draw with ease.

Kruttika impresses

Kruttika Nadig of Pune who came close to beating Vijayalakshmi in the sixth round is playing steadily. With white pieces she won a rook for minor piece of Padmini Rout and beat the sharp Sveshnikov variation used by her opponent in 29 moves.

Four rounds remain to be played.

The results (seventh round): S. Meenakshi (IA) 5 drew with S. Vijayalakshmi (IA) 5; Swati Ghate (LIC) 5.5 bt D. Harika (AP) 4.5; Nisha Mohota (Ben) 4.5 drew with Tania Sachdev (Del) 5; Kiran Mohanty (Ori) 4 lost to Eesha Karavade (Mah) 4.5; Aarthie Ramesh (IA) 4.5 bt Saheli Nath (Ben) 3.5; Kruttika Nadig (Mah) 4.5 bt Padmini Rout (Ori) 3.5; I. Ramyakrishna (AP) 3.5 lost to Swati Mohota (Ben) 4.5; P. Lakshmi Sahithi (AP) 4 bt Nimmy George (Ker) 3; R. Mahima (TN) 3 lost to Amruta Mokal (Mah) 4; J.E. Kavitha (TN) 2.5 lost to S. Harini (TN) 4, Sai Meera (TN) 3 drew with Baisakhi Das (Jha) 3; Soumya Swaminathan (Mah) 3.5 bt Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa) 2.5; P. Priya (TN) 3.5 bt R. Preethi (TN) 2.5; R. Sanggeetha (TN) 3.5 bt Kanuri Tejaswi (AP) 2.5; N. Raghavi (TN) 3 bt S. Sujatha (TN) 2.5; Aabha Thakur (Mah) 2.5 bt Pon N. Krithikha (TN) 1; H. Nilavoli (TN) 3.5 bye.

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