Two successive draws by overnight leaders IM Dronavalli Harika and WGM Eesha Karavade — including the round between them — has opened a six-way tie for the lead in the 34th Women’s National A chess championship.

While Aarthi Ramaswamy (Elo 2317) and WGM Tania Sachdev won their encounters in Round 3 before settling for draws against Harika and Karavade in the fourth round, Nisha Mohota and Sai Meera joined them with opposite results.

WGM Aarthie and Harika agreed to a draw in a Sicilian Najdorf game. On the other hand, Delhi-based Tania was lucky to survive.

WFM Sai Meera had the smartest win of the day, when she tricked her opponent Kiran Mohanty into a Sicilian Najdorf move. Second ranked WGM Nisha Mohota (Elo 2416) found some stiff resistance from Maharashtra’s Anuprita Patil.

In Round 3, overnight leaders Harika and Eesha played out a Grandmaster draw in a game that lasted just 15 moves — an understandable fact since it was a double round day and both thought it better to play safe.

However, the biggest result of the round was that of Sai Meera who drew with Mohota in a complicated battle arising out of the Evan’s Gambit.

Results

Round-3: Harika Dronavalli (2.5) drew with Eesha Karavade (2.5); Meera Sai (2) drew with Nisha Mohota (2); Tania Sachdev ( 2.5) b Mary Ann Gomes (1.5); Aarthie Ramaswamy (2.5) b Nimmy A G (1.5); Kiran Manisha Mohanty (2.5) b Swathi Ghate (1.5); Soumya Swaminathan (1.5) drew with Pon N Krithika (2); Anuprita Patil (2) b Padmini Rout (1); Amruta Mokal (2) b Rucha Pujari (1); Dave Dhyani (1.5) drew with Sangeetha M R (1.5); Syed Nabeela Farheen (2) b Harini S 1; Swati Mohota (0.5) lost to P Priya (1.5); Preethi R (1) b Divyasri Ch (0.5); Savetha C H (0) lost to Baisakhi Das (1); Uthra P ( 0.5) drew with Athirai S (0.5).

... contd.