Vijayalakshmi, Padmini stay ahead in National Women Premier Chess

NEW DELHI: Six-time national champion and Grandmaster-elect S Vijayalakshmi of Air India played another impressive game to beat International Master Nisha Mohota of PSPB in the fourth round of 43rd National Women Premier Chess Championship here on Sunday.

Another IM Padmini Rout of PSPB defeated Woman Grandmaster Swati Ghate of LIC in the Rs 6 lakh prize money championship.

Vijyalakshmi has been scoring crush- ing wins over her opponents while defending champion Padmini has been making it count through sheer hard work on board.

With Vijyalakshmi and Padmini on 3.5 points apiece, former champion and Woman Grandmaster Soumya Swaminathan and her PSPB teammate top seed International Master Eesha Karavade are closely following the two leaders with three points apiece.

With seven rounds still to come, P Bala Kannamma of Tamil Nadu and PSPB duo of Mary Ann Gomes and Nisha Mohota share the fifth spot with two points apiece.

Vijyalakshmi gave an endgame lesson to Nisha out of a Queen’s gambit declined game where the former played white.

The middle game looked intense for some time but the Chennai-based player quickly tore through the queen side to win a pawn and the resulting rook and minor piece endgame was child’s play.gaining in confidence now, Padmini Rout again had to work hard and her tactical acumen proved superior to Swati Ghate. ABU DHABI: Aditi Ashok rounded off the week with a three-under 69, just the way she had started it, but two rounds of 73-74 in between meant her streak of top-10 finishes came to an end at the inaugural Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies Open here.

Aditi finished at three-under 285 and in tied-46th place, after being pulled down by one triple bogey and two doubles in the last three rounds. Aditi’s nemesis this week was the back. Even though she had 11 birdies on the front nine in four rounds, she had only four plus an eagle on back nine.

However her losses on the back nine with seven bogeys and two doubles proved too costly. She also had a triple on front in the third round. Aditi will now play her fifth week in a row when she tees up at the Hero Women’s Indian Open, where this week’s winner Beth Allen is also headed.