TEHERAN, Aug 13: Former National champion M Saritha emerged the sole leader with six points as overnight leader IWM Vijayalaxmi Subbaraman lost to IWM Anupama Gokhale at the end of the seventh round of the Asia Zonal Chess Championship here today.

Saritha upstaged Bangladesh IWM Rani Hamid in 62 moves to end up with six points.

In the men's section, champion Abhijit Kunte (5.5 points) beat IM Ponnuswamy Konguvel to tie for a four-way lead alongwith GM Niaz Murshed (Bangladesh), IM Imad Hakki and Iranian junior champion Amir Bagheri.

Vijayalaxmi (5.5), playing black, employed Grunfeld Defence and went for a premature Queen side expansion.

With virtually no piece to protect the black King, Anupama launched a decisive King side attack to crown it with a temporary bishop sacrifice.

This left Vijayalaxmi two pawns less forcing her to resign after the 35th move as check mate on the next move was unavoidable.

In a game of fluctuating fortunes, Saritha (6) employed the Centre Counter Defence against Rani (4). Saritha mishandled the opening and the veteran from Bangladesh took a firm grip on black squares and penetrated Saritha's seventh rank with her rook by a beautiful pawn sacrifice.

Hamid failed to find a correct plan but managed to grab Saritha's rook for a heavy price of five pawns. In a mutual time scramble, Hamid made an inaccurate King move to give Saritha one more pawn and the game after 62 moves.

WGM Eva Repkova (5) showed her class to outplay IWM-norm holder Safira Shanaz (3.5) of India.

RESULTS (seventh round)

Men: K Murugan (India, 5) bt Niaz Murshed (5.5, Bangladesh); A Kunte (5.5, India) bt P Konguvel (5, India); M Lodhi (5, Pakistan) lost to I Hakki (5.5, Syria); E Hossain (4.5, Bangladesh) lost to A Bagheri (5.5, Iran); A Najjar (5, Lebanon) bt Al Modiahaki (4, Qatar); M Ghaem (5, Iran) bt A Omerat (4, Syria).

Women: A Gokhale (4.5, India) bt S Vijayalaxmi (5.5, India); R Hamid (4, Bangladesh) lost to M Saritha (6, India); E Repkova (5, Lebanon) bt S Shanaz (3.5, India); A Hussain (3, UAE) lost to S Parveen (4, Bangladesh).

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.