Bhubaneswar: Defending champion Padmini Rout of PSPB and second seed S Vijayalakshmi of Air India achieved second round wins to share lead in the 43rd National Women’s Premier Chess Championships, here Friday.
Padmini had a lucky victory in the opener against Pratyusha Bodda of Andhra Pradesh, but the Orissa girl struck form and R Vaishali of Tamil Nadu was no match for her after some wily manoeuvres.
After a crushing victory over Kiran Manisha Mohanty of LIC in the previous round, Vijayalakshmi accounted for another LIC player – WGM Swati Ghate in another fine game displaying top form.
With nine rounds still to come in the 12-player round-robin event, Vijayalakshmi and Padmini share lead on two points each and they are now followed by the PSPB duo of top seed Eesha Karavade and Asian continental bronze medallist Soumya Swaminathan.
In the decisive encounters of the day, Soumya outclassed M Mahalakshmi of Tamil Nadu while Eesha scored her first victory at the expense of Bodda.
In other games of the day, P Bala Kannamma continued with her fine run and held Kiran Manisha to a draw while Mary Ann Gomes and Nisha Mohota played out a tame stale.
Yet again the day belonged to Vijayalakshmi who played some imaginative chess beat Ghate. The Queen pawn opening by the former was met by some irregular responses and Vijayalakshmi was quick to seize the initiative in the middle game. The game ended through a picturesque tactical trick resulting in material gain for Vijayalakshmi. The game lasted 30 moves.
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