New Delhi: International Master and defending champion Padmini Rout inched closer to retaining her title after settling for a draw with PSPB team mate Mary Ann Gomes in the tenth and penultimate round of 43rd National Women premier chess championship now drawing to a close here.

The draw with black pieces took Padmini to 7.5 points out of a possible ten and she is now up against top seed Eesha Karavade in her final round game. Trailing Padmini a half point behind is Soumya Swaminathan of PSPB who remained within striking distance of the leader after defeating Swati Ghate of LIC. It was a good day for the top two seeds too as Eesha defeated P Bala Kannamma while S Vijayalakshmi of Air India proved stronger than Pratyusha Bodda of Andhra Pradesh.

Eesha and Vijayalakshmi are the other two contenders in with a chance for a podium finish as both have 6.5 points apiece. While Soumya has her task cut out against Mary Ann Gomes, Vijayalakshmi will take on R Vaishali. It was an interesting day yet again as Padmini went for some wild complexities in an English opening as black. Mary accepted an exchange sacrifice and had to give it back soon enough to keep the black pieces in-check. As it happened, Mary had an extra pawn but Padmini was not short of counter play and the draw was a just result.

Results Round-10 :- Mary Ann Gomes of PSPB (4.5) drew with IM Padmini Rout of PSPB (7.5); Eesha Karavade of PSPB (6.5) beat Bala Kannamma P of TN (4); Pratyusha Bodda of AP (3.5) lost to S Vijayalakshmi of AI (6.5); Vaishali R of TN (3.5) beat Mahalakshmi M of TN (4); Kiran Manisha Mohanty of LIC (4) drew with Nisha Mohota of PSPB (4.5); Swati Ghate of LIC (4.5) lost to Soumya Swaminathan of PSPB (7)