Vijayalakshmi downs GM Najdoski

Vijayalakshmi downs GM Najdoski
LEELADHAR SINGH

SANGLI, FEB 23: India’s latest Grand Master-elect Abhijit Kunte and International Master Tejas Bakre held their respective GM opponents, while WIM S Vijayalakshmi scored her first point defeating Macedonia's GM Toni Najdoski in the third round of the Commonwealth Chess Championship at the Krishna Valley Complex, on Wednesday.

On a day when seven GMs out of 13 played safe settling for quick draws, Abhijit held the top-seeded Russian GM Andrei Charilla on the seventh board in the best opening with English opening combination in 27 moves.

Abhijit, being a Pawn down, equalised it on time and reached a drawish position with both players boasting similar pieces.

Tejas Bakre, the 1998 Asian junior champion drew with Uzbekistan's GM Yuloashev Saidali in 37 moves of Ruy Lopez opening after exchanging pieces and being each being placed with opposite colour bishops.

On the second board, Anup Deshmukh, offered a draw in time pressure to GM Dibyendu Barua, which was accepted by the latter. After the Queens Gambit decline opening, Anup Deshmukh tried to play out of theory and surrendered his advantage. Later with both players coming under first time pressure, Anup with white offered the draw.

S Vijayalakshmi after two bad rounds finally managed to open her account with a win over GM Toni Najdoski on the lower board with the latter resigning due to time pressure. Incidentally, this was Toni's third consecutive defeat.

Meanwhile, WIM Bhagyashree Thipsay suffered another setback on Wednesday, losing to a lowly rated player Deepan Chakravarthy.

Pune's unrated player Akshayraj Kore created the biggest upset defeating Saheli Dhar-Barua in Caro-Kann defence in 45- moves. Kore, a sixth standard student of Dr Shyamrao Kalmadi School, Pune, capitalised on Saheli's blunder in the middle-game to tightened his position. Later, Saheli sacrificed her outside passed Pawn and Akshyraj not making any mistake, forced his opponent to resign.

At the time of going to the press, only two players were in the lead with three points -- Safira Shanaz who beat R Aarathi in the kings Indian defence and Ebene