Sujatha upsets Supriya, eight in joint lead

Chennai, Sep 21 (UNI) Tamil Nadu's S Sujatha, shot into joint lead with seven other players after upsetting defending champion Bengal's Supriya Maji in the third round of the 33rd National Women's 'B' Chess Championship here today.

The top seed and highly rated Nimmy A George (Kerala), Meera Sai (BSB), Mahima Rajmohan, R Preethi, P Sivasankari (all Tamil Nadu), Lakshmi Sahiti (AP) and Baisaki Das (Jharkhand) are the seven other players in the joint lead with Sujatha.

Sujatha created a major upset by defeating the defending champion Supriya Maji West Bengal. With a queer ' g3 ' opening move, the experienced Ethiraj Collegian of the late 90s, kept her opponent at bay to wrap up the contest in 35 moves.

With eight more rounds remaining, the eight players would have to still work hard to be among the top 20 to qualify for National A.

The following are the results(Round three) 1 Padmini Rout (ORIS) 2 lost to Nimmy A G (KER) 3 2 Alka Das (JHA) 2 lost to Meera Sai (BSB) 3 3 Sujatha (TN) 3 bt Supriya Maji (WB) 2 4 Mahima Rajmohan (TN) 3 bt Iswarya Shobana TN 2 5 Raghavi N (TN) 2.5 Drew with Uthra P (TN) 2.5 6 Kulkarni Ketaki (MAH) 2 lost to Preethi R, (TN) 3 7 Lakshmi Sahiti P(AP) 3 bt Harini S (TN) 2 8 Jennitha Anto K (TN) 2 lost to Sivasankari P (TN) 3 9 Baisakhi Das (JHA) 3 bt Aswathy Balagopalan(KER) 2 10 Priya P (TN) 2.5 bt Sithalatchumi A (TN) 2 11 Saheli Nath (WB) 2.5 bt Nilavoli H, (TN) 1.5 12 G Nagachandrika (AP) 1.5 lost to Kiran Monisha (ORIS) 2.5 13 Kavitha J E (TN) 2.5 bt Saranya.J (TN) 1.5 14 Mohana Priya J (AICF) 2.5 bt Bavana V (AP) 1.5 15 Pon N Krithika (TN) 2.5 bt Nandita Devi (Asom) 1.5 16 Syed Nabeela Farheen (TN) 2 bt Ku Prachi N (MAH) 1 17 Sangeetha M R (TN) 2 bt Mohana Sengupta (WB) 1 18 Manasa K, (KAR) 1 lost to Priya Sandhya P (TN) 2 19 Bhakti Kulkarni(GOA)2 bt Sneha Ghatpande (MAH) 1 20 Priyanka Kumari (JHA) 1.5 Drew with Chandana Priya Reddy(AP) 1.5 21 Tejaswini Reddy S,(AP)1.5 Drew with Apurva G (TN) 1.5 22 Sirisha Gutta (AP) 1 lost to Nandhini Saripalli (GOA) 2 23 Divyasri Ch (AP) 1 lost to Sahari J(AP) 2 UNI