Nimmy takes sole lead in national chess championship

New Delhi, Aug 22 (IANS) Kochi based Nimmy A.G. took the sole lead with six points after defeating Amruta Mokal in the seventh round of the Amity National Women Challengers Chess Championship held here at Naurang House Wednesday.

Playing with white side of Sicilian Scheveningen variation, Nimmy escaped from the claws of defeat to garner full points after her experienced Maharashtra rival made crucial mistakes towards the end under extreme time pressure in first time control of 40 moves.

Taking advantage of her opponent’s mistakes, Nimmy raided her opponents territory with her double rook combination and secured full points in 48 moves.

Top seed Chandika Divyasree of Andhra Pradesh along with Tamil Nadu trio Mahalakshmi, Michelle Catherina and R. Bharathi occupy the joint second spot with five and a half points.

Michelle and Bharathi agreed to sign the peace treaty in 41 moves in their seventh round encounter while Divyasree defeated statemate G. Lasya. Mahalakshmi joined at the second spot after settling for half a point against Women International Master P. Priya.

In the crucial eighth round Thursday Nimmy takes on top seed Divyasree while Bharathi paired with Mahalakshmi and Michelle will play against Mokal.

Important results:

Round 7: Nimmy AG (6) beat Amruta Mokal (5); Michelle Catherina (5.5) drew with Bharathi R (5.5); Priya P (5) drew with Mahalakshmi M (5.5); Lasya G (4.5) lost to Chandika Divyasree (5.5); Shweta Gole (5) drew with Swati Mohota (5); Bagyashree Thipsay (5) beat Rajasurya J (4.5); Saranya J (5) beat Mitali Madhukar Patil (4); Anjana Krishna (4) lost to Cholleti Sahajasri (5); Tejaswini Sagar (4.5) drew with Harini S (4.5); Aparajita Gochhikar (4.5) drew with A Akshaya (4.5); Meenu Rajendran (4.5) drew with Meghna CH (4.5); Madhurima Shekhar (4.5) drew with Smaraki Mohanty (4.5); Roy Pallabi (4.5) drew with Sandhya G (4.5); Raghavi N (4.5) beat Kesshni Bhasiin (4); Rucha Pujari (4.5) beat Minki Sinha (3.5).