TEHRAN, Aug 4: Woman Grandmaster norm holder S Vijayalaxmi will take on Iranian star Shirin Navabi with black pieces in the opening round of the Asian Women Zonal chess championship here this afternoon.

National champion Anupama Gokhale is paired with Alia Hussain (UAE) and M Saritha will play with white against Taraif Ahmed (Baharin).

Meanwhile, the last-minute arrival of highly rated Eman-al-Rufei and Eman (Iraq) have pushed third and fourth seeded Anupama Gokhale and M Saritha to fourth and fifth slot respectively.

National champion Abhijit Kunte and IMS D V Prasad and Lanka Ravi will take on local stars H Momeni, M Ghorbani and M Ghaem respectively. IMS P Kunguvel and K Murugan will play black against A Omerat (Syria) and Ahmed Najjar (Lebanon) respectively.

On the top boards in the men sections Eid Fadi (Lebanon) will take on top seed GM Niaz Murshed (Bangladesh).

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.