Ghate draws with Harikrishna

Swati Ghate took another stride forward in her quest of a Woman Grandmaster norm by holding compatriot Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna to a draw in third round of the Smith and Williamson British chess championship in edinburg, Scotland, on Thursday.

GM Aaron Summerscale and International Master Adam Hunt, who scored yet another emphatic victory, emerged as leaders with an absolute score of three points.

Summerscale had a smooth sailing over Nasir Ahmed while Hunt scored fluently over Rajko Vujatovic.

A pack of 11players, including Indians S Kidambi, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Swati and Harikrishna, follow the leaders half a point behind.

As many as 22 players, including GM Abhijit Kunte and WGM S Vijayalakshmi are on two points.

In a major upset of the day, GM Dibyendu Barua suffered yet another defeat, going down to Englishman Timothyoodward while in another flutter double GM norm holder Tejas Bakre was held to a draw by Matthew Dignam of Ireland. Tejas moved to 2 points with this draw while Barua remained on just 1 point.

Swati won a point with ease against Harikrishna, who stuck to his newfound love in the Ruy Lopez as black. The opening posed little problems for Swati and she obtained a slightly better middlegame prospect with established manoeuvres.

Harikrishna tried hard to keep his winning chances alive but Swati matched him move for move and even won a pawn to her credit in the complexities that ensued. Harikrishna, thereafter, was pushed to the wall and had to play precisely to steer the game to a draw after 46 moves.

A big beneficiary of the day was Arakhamia, who scored a scintillating victory over higher rated GM Sturat Conquest.

Playing black, Arakhamia moulded the game in a decisive format with enterprising defence. Conquest failed to find the right resources to counter black apart.

Amongst the Indian women, Vijayalakshmi remained on the right path and scored impressively over Jovica Radovanovic of Yugoslavia and Nisha Mohota used her superior skills to beat Colin Walton of England. However, S Meenakshi and Aarthie Ramaswamy went down against Shaun Munson of England and Rowson respectively while Eesha Karavade drew with Craig Hanley of England.

Eight more rounds remain in this prestigious championship which carries a winner's purse of 10,000 pounds.

Important results - Round 3 (Indians unless specified):

Swati Ghate (2.5) drew P Harikrishna (2.5); S Nasir Ahmed (2, Eng) lost to Aaron Summerscale (3); Rajko Vujatovic (2, Eng) lost to Adam Hunt (3, Eng); Stuart Conquest (1.5, Eng) lost to Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (2.5, Geo); Jonathan Rowson (2.5, Sco) beat Aarthi Ramaswamy (1.5); Stewart Haslinger (1.5, Eng) lost to Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2.5); Paul Motwani (2.5, Sco) beat Jonathan Grant (1.5, Sco); David Howell (1.5, Eng) lost to Ziaur Rahman (2.5, Ban); Joseph Gallagher (2.5, Sui) beat Rafe Martyn (1.5, Eng); Simon Williams (2, Eng) drew Peter Wells (2, Eng); Jack Rudd (2.5, Eng) beat Neelotpal Das (1.5); Stephen Gordon (1.5, Eng) lost to S Kidambi (2.5); Matthew Dignam (2, Irl) drew Tejas Bakre (2); Timothy Woodward (2, Eng) beat Dibyendu Barua (1); Abhijit Kunte (2) beat James Simpson (1, Eng); S Vijayalakshmi (2) Jova Radovanovic (1, Yug); Colin Walton (1, Eng) lost to Nisha Mohota (2); Thomas Eggleston (1, Eng) lost to Gurpreet Pal Singh (2); Craig Hanley (1, Eng) Eesha Karavade (1); S Meenakshi (0.5) lost to Shaun Munson (1.5, Eng).