NEW DELHI: Seizing the opportunity, Saina Salonika foiled second seed Nomin-Erdene Davaademberel’s kingside offensive and came within one move of checkmating the Mongolian before joining nine other leaders at 2.5 points from three rounds in the women’s section of the Asian chess championship here.
The Bhubaneswar-girl’s 48-move win stood out even as top seed Tania Sachdev, Vantika Agrawal, Rakshitta Ravi, Soumya Swaminathan, P.V. Nandhidhaa and N. Priyanka gave home majority to the leaders’ group.
Meanwhile, Leon Mendonca, seeded 15, emerged as the only player with a hat-trick of wins across both sections after outplaying Mongolian Tsegmed Batchuluun in 49 moves. The Goan enjoys half-a-point lead over 14 players.
Leading third-round results (Indians unless stated):
Open: M. Karthikeyan (2.5) drew with Koustav Chatterjee (2.5); B. Adhiban (2.5) drew with Sandipan Chanda (2.5); Tsegmed Batchuluun (Mgl, 2) lost to Leon Mendonca (3); Maksat Atabayev (Tkm, 2.5) drew with Shyam Sundar (2.5); Pranav Anand (2.5) drew with Raja Rithvik (2.5); R. Praggnanandhaa (2.5) bt M. Pranesh (2); S.L. Narayanan (2.5) bt Arystanbek Urazayev (Kaz, 1.5); S.P. Sethuraman (2) drew with Sumiya Bilguun (Mgl, 2); Rinat Jumabayev (Kaz, 2.5) bt R.R. Laxman (1.5); Mitrabha Guha (2) drew with Abhimanyu Puranik (2).
Women: Soumya Swaminathan (2.5) drew with Liya Kurmangaliyeva (Kaz, 2.5); Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie, 2.5) drew with Rakshitta Ravi (2.5); Tania Sachdev (2.5) bt Kiran Manisha Mohanty (2); Isha Sharma (1.5) lost to Vantika Agrawal (2.5); Nilufar Yakubbaeva (Uzb, 2.5) bt Amina Kairbekova (Kaz, 1.5); Srishti Pandey (1.5) lost to Vo Thi Kim Phung (Vie, 2.5); Aashna Makhija (1.5) lost to N. Priyanka (2.5); Swati Ghate (1.5) lost to P.V. Nandhidhaa (2.5); Nomin-Erdene Daademberel (Mgl, 1) lost to Saina Salonika (2); Xeniya Balabayeva (Kaz, 1.5) drew with Padmini Rout (1.5).