Monisha takes sole lead

Tamil Nadu’s fifth seed GK Monisha defeated Meenu Priya Se to emerge as the sole leader after the fourth round of the Runwal’s 29th National U-15 girls chess tournament organised by Bombay Chess Association and held at Valia College, Andheri, on Saturday.

Monisha secured her win in the third board playing with white pieces. Monisha opted for the Sicilian Defence, which was replied by Najdorf Variation. On the 32nd move, Priya sacrificed her rook for bishop and knight but exposed her king and allowed the queen to enter. Monisha forced her opponent to give her queen on the 45th move and won the game in 56 moves.

On the first board, WFM Shrija Sheshadri (ELO 1964) of Tamil Nadu drew with U Ashwini (ELO 1926) in a Spanish opening in 62 moves. on the second board, Aarti G (ELO 1770) drew with Vaishali (ELO 1947) in 39 moves in Italian Game. On the fourth board, Shoumi Mukherjee (ELO 1853) of Mumbai lost to Sunyasakta Satpathy (ELO 1917) of Orissa.

Important results (fourth round): Srija Seshadri (3.5) drew with Ashwini U (3.5), Aarthi G (3.5) drew with Vaishali R (3.5), Monisha GK (4) bt Meenu Priya Se (3), Sunyasakta Satpathy (3.5) bt Shoumi Mukerjee (2.5), Pranali S Dharia (3.5) bt Jadhav Vaibhavi (2.5), Mahalakshmi M (3) bt Smaraki Mohanty (2.5), Chandreyee Hajra (2) lost to Lasya G (3), Shalon Joanne Pais (2) lost to Varshini V (3), Savant Riya (3) bt Angira Choudhuri (2), Manasa HR (2.5) drew with Saranya Y (2.5)