Viji, Anupama share the lead

The subcontinent's sole woman Grandmaster and defending champion, S Vijayalakshmi of Indian Airlines and five-time National champion IWM Anupama Gokhale of PSCB continued to share the lead with 2.5 points apiece after the end of the third round of the 27th National women's 'A' chess championship in Delhi on Monday.

The other overnight joint leader IWM S Meenakshi of Indian Airlines could not hold on to her material advantage and suffered a rather uncharacteristic loss against IWM Swati Ghate of LIC.

Playing black, Meenakshi stuck to her newfound love in the Petroff defense and took advantage of some lacklustre play by Swati in the middlegame to get her pieces singing mate on the king side. Under tremendous pressure, Swait found a way to stay in the game through an exchange sacrifice though her position looked almost beyond repair.

However, disaster struck Meenakshi under time pressure as she went on to make a series of blunders to allow Swati's pawn promotion. Cashing in on the opportunity Swati turned tables on Meenakshi and delivered the mate with only a few seconds remaining on both clocks.

Vijaylakshmi is a girl on a mission. After a rather dismal show at the just-concluded Asian Zonal championship at Colombo, the Madras-based girl looks like setting the 64 squares on fire.

Results: Round 3:
S Vijayalakshmi (2.5 points) beat Pallavi Shah (0.5 points)
D C Bose (2.5) lost to Anupama Gokhale (2.5)
Y Pratibha (2) beat D Harika (0.5)
Swati Ghate (2) beat S Meenakshi (1)
R Aarthie (2) beat Nisha Mohota (1)
M R Sangeetha (1) beat Saheli Barua (1)
Saimeera Ravi (0.5) drew B P Thipsay (1.5).