Koneru Humpy moves into lead

Visakhapatnam, Apr 5 (UNI) Grandmaster Koneru Humpy of Andhra Pradesh moved into the lead with four points at the end of the fourth round of the 43rd National 'A' Chess Championship in progress at the Swarna Bharathi Indoor Stadium here today.

In the 32nd National Women's A championship at the same venue, Women Grandmaster Swathi Ghate of LIC and Kiran Mohanty of Orissa emerged joint leaders with three points each from as many games.

Koneru Humpy who shared joint lead with IM J Deepan Chakravarthy at the close of the third game took the sole lead after her convincing win over Maharshtra's Vikramaditya Kamble. Humpy, who faced the King's Indian defence, employed the Finachetto system and obtained a good amount of extra space for her white pieces. In search of counterplay, Kamble erred with a Knight sortie to a central square. Latching on to the inaccurate move, Humpy rolled down her central pawns and secured a victory in 39 moves.

Surprisingly, all other games in the championship were drawn.

Overnight joint leader Deepan Chakravarthy of Tamil Nadu was held to a draw by Shivananda of Karnataka in a Grunfeld defence game.

Reigning champion Surya Sekhar Ganguly and GM Abhijit Kunte, who had dropped a point to less known rivals, made mild recoveries by drawing their games with International Masters from hosts Andhra Pradesh, IM Lanka Ravi and IM PDS Girinath, respectively.

In the Women's championship, WGM Swathi Ghate (LIC) and Kiran Mohanty (ORI) scored their third victory in a row to stay in the lead with three points each. Swathi Ghate, who faced the Pelikan defence from Alka Das, exploited a harsh pawn move from her opponent to emerge with an extra pawn. Soon she won another pawn and coasted to victory using her material advantage in 59 moves.

Debutant Kiran Mohanty continued to surprise everybody by scoring a fine win over national number two Nimmy George of Kerala. Kiran chose Rossolimo sytem of attack aginst Nimmy's pet Sicilian defence.

Even as early as the eighth move, despite the exchange of Queens, Black's King was precariously placed in the centre. Using this displacement to her advantage, she continued to pose a strong threat and won material and the game in 48 moves.

Birthday girl L Iswarya Shobana of Tamil Nadu had good reason to celebrate with a good win over state-mate J E Kavitha. Playing the Najdorf variation of the Sicilian defence, Iswarya arrested the White King in the centre, right from the opening stage to score her win.

Reigning Champion WGM Nisha Mohota suffered a setback with a loss at the hands of former National Champion WGM S S Vijayalakshmi.

Nisha Mohota, who chose the Nimzo Indian defence, had to concede certain weakness on her Queen's side, which Vijayalakshmi converted into an extra pawn in a Rook and Knight endgame.

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