Pratyusha emerges sole leader

BHUBANESWAR: On a day of upsets, Andhra Pr*adesh girl Pratyusha Boda outwitted Maharashtra WGM Soumya Swaminathan to eme*rge sole leader with 3.5 points after completion of the fourth round of the 37th Premier National Women Chess Championship here at Infosys campus on Tuesday.

Playing with black pieces, fourth seed Soumya came to a passive position, allowing Pratyusha take upper hand with a pawn up. The latter played beautifully and won the game by compounding pressure on his opponent.

Host Orissa WGM Padmini Rout caused the biggest upset of the day by defeating top seed and Delhi IM Tania Sachdev in a double-rook end game.

In a Gruenfeld Defence game, Padmini played aggressively with black pieces. She took material advantage and converted it into an impressive win. With this defeat, IM Tania slumped to joint third place with 2.5 points in her kitty.

Another upset of the day occurred when J Saranya (Tamil Nadu) prevailed overt second seed and Maharashtra IM Ees*ha Karavade on the fourth boa*rd. Five players shared the second place with three points each after the end of fourth round. They include Mary Ann Gomes, Swati Ghate, Padmini Rout, J Saranya and Nisha Mohota.

Results (Round 4)

Pratyusha Bodda (3.5) bt Soumya Swaminathan (2.5), Swati Ghate (3) drew with Mary Ann Gomes (3), Tania Sachdev (2.5) lost to Padmini Rout (3), J Saranya (3) bt Eesha Karavade (2), Nisha Mohota (3) bt R Preethi (2), S Harini (2.5) drew with A Sithalatchumi (2), R Bharathi (2) drew with Swati Mohota (2), Aparajita Gochhikar (1.5) drew with Kiran Manisha Mohanty (1.5), Minki Sinha (1) lost to Rucha Pujari (2), Shweta Gole (2) bt Arunima Kalra (1), Sonakshi Rathore (1) bt A Akshaya (0.5), JG Nivedhitha (0.5) lost to Amrutha Mokal (1).

Keywords: Sportsnews, indian sports, cricket news, tennis