Vijayalakshmi shocked

Woman Grandmaster S Vijayalakshmi found her nemesis in double WGM norm holder Aarthie Ramaswamy but continued to lead the table by two points after the ninth round in the 27th National Women's 'A' chess championship in Delhi on Monday.

Vijayalakshmi remained on 7.5 points while Aarthie joined S Meenakshi in second position on 5.5 points. IWMs Bhagyashree Thipsay, Anupama Gokhale and Swati Ghate share the fourth place with five points each.

Vijayalakshmi faced the Ruy Lopez opening with black pieces and was clearly not in good form. The middlegame took shape on classical lines and Aarthie launched an attack on the kingside by rolling her king rook pawn.

The pressure built with every move and Vijayalakshmi lost a pawn in tactical complications and to make matters worse for her, Aarthie contiued the wave of attack against her unguarded king. In the end Aarthie's finely planted rook on the seventh rank won her a piece and the game in 41 moves.

It was a bad day for the Subbaraman sisters as the younger sibling Meenakshi also went down to IWM Nisha Mohota after a tense struggle that arose from a Slav defence.

Nisha got into the groove after the opening and through slow manoeuvring, won a pawn in the late middlegame. Meenakshi could have opted for better endgame with rooks and pawns on the same flank but she made a vital error in leaving a minor piece on board. Nisha pounced on the opportunity and registered an important victory.

Needing just a draw to make her maiden IWM norm, 11-year- old Harika Dronavalli of AP slipped at a crucial juncture and went down to Swati in a French defence game with black pieces.

The Winawer variation fetched Swati a couple of pawns in the opening as Harika failed to get the desired counterplay in one of the established variations. The endgame with a two pawns cushion was an easy prey for Swati who pocketed the full point after 57 moves.

Asian zonal champion Pallavi Shah continued to struggle with her form and lost to Bhagyashree from the black side of a Sicilian Nazdorf. Pallavi entered unwarranted complications with an exchange sacrifice early in the middlegame and strove hard for counter measure to contain Bhagyashree's rook and pawn. The game lasted 30 moves.

Saimeera Ravi went for a direct attack against the king and was aptly rewarded for her crushing attack against Dolan Champa Bose of Jharkhand while Y Pratibha of Tamil Nadu got the better of state-mate M R Sangeetha. The only drawn game of the day was fought between IWMs Saheli Barua and Anupama Gokhale.

Results round 9: R Aarthie (5.5) bt S Vijayalakshmi (7.5); Nisha Mohota (4.5) bt S Meenakshi (5.5); Swati Ghate (5) bt D Harika (4); B P Thipsay (5) bt Pallavi Shah (3); Saimeera Ravi (4.5) bt D C Bose (3.5); Saheli Barua (3.5) drew Anupama Gokhale (5); R Sangeetha (2.5) lost to Y Pratibha (4).