Vijayalakshmi begins campaign in style

V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD, JULY 16. IWM S. Vijayalakshmi of India began her campaign in style in the Wipro Grandmasters chess tournament shocking National men's champion and GM Abhijit Kunte while GM Evegeny Vladimirov (Kazhakstan) ensured that his `student' Aarthie Ramaswamy had no escape routes with a fluent win in the first round games at the Taj Residency Hotel here on Sunday.

In a King's Indian pattern Vijayalakshmi showed her skill by building up a dangerous attack on Kunte's king side with her knight dominating the g3 square. Much to her delight Kunte made a blunder by playing Be3. Later he felt that he should have played h3 instead. As it turned out Kunte's move not only forced him to give up one of his bishops for a knight but it allowed black centre to be powerful.

When Vijayalakshmi got a mating attack there was very little Kunte could do but accept defeat after 35 moves. Incidentally, this is Vijayalakshmi's first win against the GM in three of their meetings. Kunte was unbeaten in the recent Nationals.

In another game top-seed Vladimirov demonstrated his class in no uncertain terms getting the better World under-10 champion Aarthie Ramaswamy. The Kazhakstan GM, who analysed the game later, felt that Aarthie erred by going for a non-existent attack preferring to exchange the black bishop (b x h6) on the 23rd move.

Earlier Aarthie gave the much needed leeway for the favourite by making `d5' which he felt was also a theoretical mistake. ``I think she is still a little bit green in some areas. But, she definitely made me fight in the end to earn the win despite those two mistakes,'' he explained.

He played a fine end-game in a double rook and bishop ending to win after 46 moves in a contest featuring Ruy Lopez variation.

GM K. Sasikiran clinched a win over GM Sergey Ionov (Russia) who slipped into time pressure. It was an intense struggle in a Nimzo Indian affair. Sasikiran had a few problems in developing his pieces at the start. However, the Indian wriggled out from a spot and a draw looked imminent. Though Ionov had different ideas he took too much time, overstepping the time control on the 39th move. The arbiter declared him loser on time.

It was a creditable start for the seasoned campaigner D.V. Prasad of Indian Oil Corporation when he held second-seeded Alexander Fominyh of Russia. In a Sicilian Timmanov variation, the Russian tried for a sub-variation playing bishop c5, in place of the move adopted by the Russian in the Guntur Grandmasters event a few months ago.

This blocked Prasad's attempt to introduce a novelty very early in the game. Fominyh's 13th move - Ng4 - led to a deviation of his earlier game when he had castled. Later, Prasad had to play accurately and took 45 minutes to play his next five moves. When the game slipped into a rook knight rook knight ending, the draw offer was readily accepted on move 29.

In the battle between two Bengal boys, Sandipan Chanda and Surya Sekhar Ganguly, which featured a Ruy Lopez variation, the later showed wonderful imagination to win his rival's rook for the knight. But, Ganguly seemed to have taken things a bit too easy, played listlessly and allowed Sandipan come back and score a surprise win.

Asian under-14 champion Pendyala Harikrishna settled for a draw against GM Maxim Sorokin (Argentina) after 20 moves. In the Queen's Gambit variation, white had slight plus but there was a repetition of moves very early and led to a predictable draw. ``May be, if I had played Qg3 for Qf4, there was a slight chance to extend the issue but that was not to be and draw looked the best result,'' Harikrishna said later.

The results (round one): Leonid Yurtaev (Kirgystan) bye; P. Harikrishna (0.5) drew with Sorokin (0.5); Sandipan Chanda (1) bt Surya Sekhar Ganguly (0); K. Sasikiran (1) bt Sergey Ionov (0); Aarthie Ramaswamy (0) lost to Evegeny Vladimirov (1); D.V. Prasad (0.5) drew with Alexander Fominyh (0.5); Abhijit Kunte (0) lost to S. Vijayalakshmi (1).

Monday's pairings: S.S. Ganguly bye; Maxim Sorokin vs Sergey Ionov; Leonid Yurtaev vs Evegeny Vladimirov; P. Harikrishna vs Alexander Fominyh; Sandipan Chanda vs S. Vijayalakshmi; K. Sasikiran vs Abhijit Kunte; Aarthie Ramaswamy vs D.V. Prasad.

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