S Vijayalakshmi crashes out

International Master S Vijayalakshmi crashed out in the second game of the third round ending Indian challenge at the World Women's chess championship in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

Vijalakshmi lost to Svetlana Matveeva of Russia after committing mistakes early in the Nimzo Indian Defense game and squandering the advantage of white pieces.

Grandmaster Koneru Humpy, the highest rated competitor here, had bowed out in the second round while another Indian contender S Meenakshi was ousted in the opening round.

Once glam-girl Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia added to the growing casualty list of the event after she was beaten by Viktorija Cmilyte of Lithuania in the second game of the third round.

Kosteniuk joins defending champion Antoaneta Stefanova and third seed Pia Cramling of Sweden, who all went down in the second round of the event that carries a total prize pool of USD 450000.

After the third round, only eight players remain in this knockout championship that started with 64 players.

They are Russians Alisa Galliamova Ekaterina Kovalevskaya and Svetlana Matveeva, Georgians Maia Chiburdanidze and Nino Khurtsidze, Marie Sebag of France Viktorija Cmilyte of Lithuania and twice women's world cup winner Xu Yuhua of China.

Till the finals, there will be two games in each round under normal time control followed by tiebreak games while the final will be played over four games.