Eesha Karavade maintains lead after 5th round

Fourth seed Eesha Karavade of Maharashtra played a quick draw with Nisha Mohota of West Bengal to maintain her sole lead with 5.5 points at the end of the sixth round in the National Women's `B' chess championship here on Tuesday.

Esha and Nisha agreed to settle for a draw after only eight moves.

Half a point behind Eesha were Nisha, Aarthie Ramaswamy (IA), Mary Ann Gomes (WB), Swathi Ghate (LIC) and A G Nimmy (KEL).

Aarthie, facing Sicilian defence in the second board, drew with Gomes after 12 moves.

Important results :

Eesha Karavade (MAH) 5-1/2 drew with Nisha Mohota (WB) 5 Aarthie Ramaswamy (IA) 5 drew with Mary Ann Gomes (WB) 5 Swathi Ghate (LIC) 5 bt Bhakti Kulkarni (GOA) 4 A G Nimmy (KEL) 5 bt Swati Mohota (WB) 4 Pon N Krithika (TN) 4-1/2 drew with Nadig Kruttika (MAH) 4-1/2 Padmini Rout (ORI) 4-1/2 bt M R Sangeetha (TN) 4 N Raghavi (TN) 4 drew with Sai Meera (TN) 4 Alka Das (JHA) 4 drew with R Preethi (TN) 4 Amrutha Mokal (MAH) 4-1/2 bt Devangi Patankar (MAH) 3-1/2 Supriya Maji (WB) 3-1/2 lost to A Niji (KEL) 4-1/2 Divyasri (AP) 4 drew with Roy Pallabi (WB) 4 S Harini (AP) 3-1/2 lost to Pratyusha Bodda (AP) 4-1/2 Madhuri M Patil (MAH) 4 drew with Anuprita Patil (MAH) 4 Baisakhi Das (JHA) 4-1/2 bt P K Jayashree (TN) 3-1/2 Gagare Shalmali (MAH) 4 bt Cholleti Sahajasri (AP) 3.