There seems to be no inch spared in the ongoing 34th Women’s National ‘A’ chess championship. For the fourth successive day and after seven rounds of competition, the meet is yet to produce a sole leader.

On Sunday, after a day’s break, the top spot was shared by five players— WGM Tania Sachdev, WGM Swati Ghate, IM Dronavalli Harika, WIM Kiran Manisha Mohanty and WIM Mary Ann Gomes all boasting five points.

While Tania and Harika were involved in two draws, the player to hold centrestage was Mary Ann Gomes, who logged two victories at the Symbiosis Center for Health Care, Range Hills, and thus propelled herself into the joint lead for the first time in the championship.

With Round Six belonging to Swati Ghate—who shocked No 2 seed Nisha Mohota—the subsequent round was Mary Ann’s. Playing on a lower board, No 8 seed Mary first saw off Sai Meera Ravi and then No 4 Aarthie.

On the top board, Harika played in an attacking mode right from the beginning against Kiran Mohanty, but could not win as the latter was composed and did well to earn half a point.

With no clear leader emerging, the day was laced by a marathon game that involved Tamil Nadu’s P Priya (Elo 2129) and WGM Eesha Karavade (Elo 2331), wherein thee former shocked the No 4 seed Pune girl after a whopping 149 moves.

This was Eesha’s second consecutive loss and she will now need much better performances in the last few rounds to make a difference.

... contd.