Press Trust of India
Kolkata, Nov 21: Defending champion IM Padmini Rout of Orissa and WGM Swati Ghate of LIC continued to lead with 6.5 points at the end of the eighth round of the 42nd Women’s National Premier Chess Championship here Saturday.
With three rounds remaining, the meet is poised for an exciting finish as both the leaders battle it out Sunday. The result of the match will go a long way in deciding whether Padmini can retain her title.
Not far behind these two, is young Pratyusha Bodda of Andhra Pradesh, on 5.5 points, while Soumya Swaminathan of PSCB, who was leading till the sixth round, suffered her second consecutive defeat – this time against Padmini – to be relegated to the third spot.
Playing white against the top seed, Soumya embarked on a dubious combination on the 21st move, which cost her a piece a few moves later. Padmini had little difficulty in thwarting Soumya’s
attack and she herself gave back her extra piece to force her opponent’s King out in the open and then she forced a checkmate. It was a creditable victory considering the fact that Padmini was playing with black pieces.
In another match Swati, playing white, had little difficulty in converting her material advantage of bishop and knight versus rook against Michelle Catherina of Tamil Nadu.
Swati created a passed pawn on the Queen’s side, whose advance Michelle was unable to stop and ended checkmating herself.
Pratyusha inched closer to the top with a victory against K Priyanka of Tamil Nadu, with black, in a Sicilian defence. An out of form Tania Sachdev of Air India recorded her second win in the meet as she got the better of Neha Singh of Bihar in a King’s Indian defence.
