Vijayalakshmi shocked: Asian chess

Huang Quinn of China caused a huge upset when she defeated top seed WGM S Vijayalakshmi in just 32 moves to emerge sole leader in the ninth Asian women's chess championship in Madras on Wednesday.

Quinn has four points from four rounds.

WIM Nisha Mohota, who carved out a neat victory over Uzbekistan WIM Khegay Anjala, is second with 3.5 points.

Although Quinn was up against a player who is placed 130 Elo points above her, she did not exibit any sort of fear. Infact, it was Vijayalakshmi who made some shaky moves.

Employing the Reti opening with white pieces, Quinn ripped open the black's kingside where king was placed by pushing the rook pawn.

The Indian, who was more concerned about defending her king's side, overlooked a strategic pin at the centre. Quinn soon pinned black's knight on 'd5' square by piling up her major pieces on the queen file and forced Vijayalakshmi to surrender in 32 moves.

Nisha rose to the occasion when she scored a miniature win over Anjala in 29 moves. Playing black, Nisha opted for a sharp 'BG5' variation in Dutch defence against 'D4' opening.

With both the kings uncastled, Nisha opened up the rook file and targetted the black's weak pawn at 'H7' square. Her fine manoeuvering of the queen gave her rich dividend in the form of three pawns at the centre. In a minor combination with her queen and knight, she forcibily grabbed the opponent's rook and the point.

In another board, WGM norm holder Aarthie Ramaswamy scored an effortless victory over WGM Zhao Xue (China) in just 25 moves. Employing Tarrasch variation against black's French defense, Aarthie was too aggressive in Wednesday's game. Zhao Xue made serious positional blunder by pushing the king side pawns even before castling her king. Aarthie, who also did not castle, went all out hunting for black's king. Keeping a rook at the open 'H' file she combined her queen, bishop and knight to set a thematic mating net for Zhao's king. As the check mate was imminent in another few moves, the WGM quit.

The second board match between two WIMs Sergeva Maria (Kazakastan) and Li Ruofan (China) ended in a quick draw. Sergeva with white pieces chose the rare Berlin variation of Ruy Lopez opening, construed to be a sharp variation. Sergeva took the initiative in the middle game.

But Li Ruofan offered stiff resistance to counter the tactical play of her rival. At one stage, the game was poised for an interesting play, but Ruofan returned her material advantage to neutralise the game. When it reached knight and five pawns euqal ending after 21 moves, they agreed for a draw.

World-under 10 silver medalist Harka Dronavalli (India) obtained a creditable draw against WGM Geldeyeva Mckhri (Turkmenistan) after battling for 40 moves.

The game progressed from English opening with Harika playing black.