Viji scores lucky win

Woman Grandmaster S Vijayalakshmi of Indian Airlines continued to lead the field with a full point margin after a lucky victory over 12-year-old Dronavalli Harika of Andhra Pradesh in the seventh round of the 27th National women's 'A' chess cChampionship in Delhi on Saturday.

Vijayalakshmi has 6.5 points after a fifth victory on the trot and younger sister Meenakshi, also from Indian Airli- nes, remains in second position with 5.5 points. International Woman Master Anupama Gokhale of PSCB, IWM Aarthie Ramaswamy of Wipro share a distant third position half way through the tournament.

Playing white, Vijayalakshmi embarked on less trodden path in the English opening game and allowed Harika to get an easy equality in the middlegame. A deceptive manoeuvre by Harika netted her a nearly won position but a series of inaccuracies led to her downfall. Experience helped Vijayalshmi get her act together and she excelled in the final stages to romp home.

Meenakshi capitalised on a piece blundered by IWM Saheli Barua of South Eastern Railway to win a topsy turvy battle arising out of a Pirc defense. Saheli got in to the groove right from the beginning and settled well in the middlegame.

However, the pressure became increasingly difficult to handle once Meenakshi strove for counterplay. The game lasted 36 moves.

The Tarrasch variation against the French defence has kept Aarthie in good esteem and this day was no different against Y Pratibha of Tamil Nadu. Gaining a slight advantage in the middlegame Aarthie slowly ground Pratibha in 57 moves.

Saimeera Ravi of BSB and Dolan Champa Bose of Jharkhand recorded the two major upsets of the day. IWM Anupama Gokhale found Saimeera a tough customer in Modern defense and lost a grueling battle after 42 moves while IWM Swati Ghate of LIC got a hammering through her lackluster play against Dolan.

Women's results of round 7: S Vijayalakshmi (6.5) bt Harika Dronavalli (3); Swati Ghate (4) lost Dolan Champa Bose (3); Aarthie Ramaswamy (4) bt Y Pratibha (2); Saimeera Ravi (3.5) bt Anupama Gokhale (4); M R Sangeetha (2) lost Pallavi Shah (3); Saheli Dhar Barua (2) lost S Meenakshi (5.5); Bhagysrhee Thipsay (3) drew Nisha Mohota (3.5).