PANJIM: IM Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi (2314) of Air India maintained her lead at the end of ninth round with the score of eight points at 41st National Women Challengers chess championship, at Boxing hall, Peddem sports complex, Peddem, Mapusa, on Saturday.
Former National champion and Arjuna awardee, IM Subbaraman outplayed WGM Padmini Raut (2354) of Odisha with new grunfield defence which lasted for 66 moves.
Subbaraman got the yearly advantage in the middle game but had to try hard for the win due to Padmini’s stiff resistance. But in the rook ending it was difficult for Padmini to tackle the three extra pawns of Vijee which made her to resign after 66 moves.
WGM Padmini Raut of Odisha, WGM Bhakti Kulkarni of Goa, WGM Swati Ghate of LIC, WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy of Air India, WIM Ivana Furtado of Goa, Bala Kannamma, Varshini V of Tamil Nadu, Harshita Gudatantti, Hinduja Reddy of AP and Neha Singh of Bihar are on 6.5 points.
Bhakti defeated Pranali Dharia of Maharastra in 24 moves, WIM Ivana defeated Anjana Krishna of Kerala while WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy defeated WFM Arpita Mukherji of West Bengal.
WGM Soumya Swaminathan of PSPB, WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty of LIC, Pratusha Bodda of AP, WFM Bindhu Saritha of LIC, Sunyasakta Satapathy of West Bengal, WFM M Mahalakshmi of PSPB, WFM Riya Savant of Goa, WFM Swati Mohota of West Bengal, Dhanashree Pandit of Maharashtra and Smaraki Mohanty of Odisha are on six points.
Among other Goan players, WFM Riya Savant is on six points, Nandhini Saripalli and Adittee Prabhugaonkar are on 5.5 points each.
