Vijayalakshmi bests Anupama

By Raghunandan Gokhale

KALYAN, JUNE 9. Top seeded IWM S. Vijayalakshmi (2.5) of Indian Airlines, Chennai scored an important victory when she beat back five times National champion Anupama Gokhale's (1) attack with precise defence in the third round of 26th National women's `A' chess championship here on Friday. Vijayalakshmi shares the lead with Swati Ghate (Maharashtra) and debutant S. Sujatha (TN).

World under-18 girls champion, R. Aarthie succumbed to her second successive defeat, IWM Bhagyashree Thipsay scored an easy win over Y. Pratibha (TN) while Swati Ghate (LIC) overcame stiff resistance from her team mate Pallavi Shah. S. Meenakshi had a bye today.

The game between Anupama and Vijayalakshmi are always well contested. It was the Queen's Indian Defence today with the three times WGM norm holder handling black pieces. Vijayalakshmi played a rarely employed move on her 7th turn and Anupama's 10. f3 and 11. e4 tilted the balance in her favour.

Anupama's hasty 17. a3 move was criticised by IM Sharad Tilak. who felt she should have played 17. Rc1 to maintain her edge. Vijayalakshmi immediately cashed on the error and saddled Anupama with a weak pawn on the queenside.

By this time Anupama realised her mistake and threw caution to winds by launching a dangerous offensive on the black king. She sacrificed an exchange to add fuel to the attack. Vijayalakshmi is too experienced to buckle under pressure and she defended her King with precision and finally launched a counter- attack through the queen side.

Anupama was forced to exchange queens and Vijayalakshmi was left with extra pawns. She nursed them carefully to register a win on 44th move. It was an exhibition of sterling defence under pressure which put Vijayalakshmi ahead today.

After letting Vijayalakshmi escape in the very first round, Saheli had to save her second round game against Safira on Thursday. On Friday, she was handed the victory on platter by Aarthie.

Both the players blitzed through seventeen moves of Sicilian Boleslavsky Defence as they were too familiar with the moves. The long shadow of men's chess was clearly visible on the game as Saheli's husband, GM Dibyendu Barua plays the same variation. Barua, in fact had played the same position against Aarthie's trainer many times.

However Saheli's exchange sacrifice stumped Aarthie. She thought for a long time and responded with a blunder 26. - Be4 which lost a piece after Saheli's queen move. Aarthie tried to find some counter on the king side but she did not have enough pieces on that side.

Saheli played a small combination to enter a winning ending. Aarthie, who had tied with Saheli for the first place in the National Women `B' championship at Sangli last year, stopped the clock to signal her resignation on 50th move.

The rest day on Thursday must have worked wonders for five-time champion Bhagyashree Thipsay. She was at her devastating best against teenager Y. Pratibha. Facing the Spanish Opening, Pratibha (black), allowed Bhagyashree to break-through the kingside. The former champion installed her knight at f5 from where it paralysed the entire black position. Bhagyashree doubled the rooks on the open g-file and delivered a checkmate on the 31st move.

Swati Ghate hospitalised

International Women Master and second seeded Swati Ghate was hospitalised on Friday evening because of high fever.

According to the organisers, Dr. Shrikant Deo had advised Swati to get admitted since her fever was constant at 103 farenheight. She was administred saline. The doctor is hopeful that Swati will recover enough to play her fourth round game against S.Sujatha.

The results (third round): Saheli Barua (Rlys.) 2 bt R. Aarthie (Wipro) 0; Baisakhi Das (WB) 0 lost to Safira Shahnaz (TN) 2; Anupama Gokhale (BPCL) 1 lost to S. Vijayalakshmi (IA) 2.5; Neha Singh (Bih) 0 lost to S. Sujatha (TN) 2.5; Swati Ghate (LIC) 2.5 bt Pallavi Shah (LIC) 1.5; Bhagyashree Thipsay (IDBI) 1 bt Y. Pratibha (TN) 1.5; S. Meenakshi (TN) 1.5 - Bye

The moves: Anupama Gokhale vs S. Vijayalakshmi: 1. d4 Nf6, 2. Nf3 e6, 3. g3 b6, 4. Bg2 Bb7, 5. O-O Be7, 6. c4 O-O, 7. Re1 Ne4, 8. Nfd2 f5, 9. Nxe4 Bxe4, 10. f3 Bb7, 11. e4 Nc6, 12. Be3 d5, 13. cxd5 exd5, 14. exf5 Rxf5, 15. Nc3 Na5, 16. Bf2 Bb4, 17. a3 Bxc3, 18. bxc3 Qf8, 19. Qe2 Bc6, 20. f4 Re8, 21. Qd3 Rf7, 22. Re5 Rd8, 23. Rae1 Nc4, 24. Rh5 g6, 25. Rg5 Rd6, 26. h4 Rf5, 27. Re5 Nxe5, 28. dxe5 Rd8, 29. Bh3 Rxg5, 30. Be6+ Kg7, 31. hxg5 Qxa3, 32. Bd4 Qc1+, 33. Kh2 Qb2+, 34. Kh3 Bb5, 35. c4 dxc4, 36. Bxb2 Rxd3, 37. Bg4 c3, 38. Bc1 Kf7, 39. e6+ Ke7, 40. Ba3+ c5, 41. Be2 Rxg3+, 42. Kxg3 Bxe2, 43. Kf2 Bd3, 44. Ke3 Bf5. Anupama resigned.

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