Mahima taking lead in round nine

Chennai, Sep 25 (UNI) Mahima Rajmohan of Tamil Nadu snatched the sole lead with 7.5 points when she defeated her fellow state player J E Kavitha in a long stretched game of 122 moves in the ninth round of the 33rd National Women's 'B' Chess Championship at the St Joseph College of Engineering, here today morning.

R Preethi also from Tamil Nadu, who shared the lead with Mahima at the close of the eighth round, failed to consolidate her top position when she lost badly to Saheli Nath of West Bengal and thereby relegated to the third spot.

Four players Saheli Nath (2193)(WB), P Priya (2141)(TN), Sai Meera Ravi (2138)(Indian Bank, TN), Padmini Rout (2061)(Ori) with 7 points to their credit were closely following Mahima Rajmohan (2019) (TN) , the outright leader.

With two more rounds to finish, the players on the top rung were more eager to come within the top 20, rather than to go for an all out in the remaining two rounds, so that they could reserve a berth for the ensuing National A for women. As such, the title finish was anybody's guess unless and until the final 11th round show down would leave the tenth and penultimate round.

Result (Ninth Round) 1 Saheli Nath (WB) 7 bt Preethi R (TN) 6.5 2 Mahima Rajmohan (TN) 7.5 bt Kavitha J E (TN) 6 3 Priya P (TN) 7 bt Lakshmi Sahiti P (AP) 6 4 Raghavi N (TN) 6 lost to Meera Sai (BSB) 7 5 Sangeetha M R (TN) 6 lost to Padmini Rout (ORIS) 7 6 Bhakti Kulkarni (GOA) 6 Lost to Nimmy A G (KER) 6.5 7 Harini S (TN) 6.5 bt Uthra P (TN) 5.5 8 Kulkarni Ketaki (MAH) 5 lost to Kiran Monisha Mohanty, (ORIS) 6 9 Iswarya Shobana L (TN) 6 bt Mohana Priya J (AICF) 5 10 Kanuri Tejaswi (AP) 6 beat Priya Sandhya P (TN) 5

UNI