MUMBAI, June 10: International woman Master Bhagyashree Thipsay dealt a crucial blow to top seed Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman by defeating the highest rated IWM and two WGM norm holder in the ninth round of the National Women's A Chess Championships at the Sachivalaya Gymkhana here today.Swati Ghate, who became the sole leader yesterday, moved one point (7) clear of the field after drawing with Pallavi Shah and now she needs one more point from the remaining four rounds to earn her second IWM norm. She got the first one during the previous championships at Calcutta.There are four players in the second spot Pallavi, Vijaylakshmi, Anupama Gokhale and Nisha Mohota. Saheli Dhar-Barua is in the third position with 5.5 points.Bhagyashree, who has only half a point in the three previous rounds, broke her dry spell with a brilliant victory over Vijayalakshmi in time trouble. Bhagyashree played the Dutch Stonewall with black. Vijayalakshmi opened her King side 15.f3. But she did not have such a good initiative against Bhagyashree's queenside attack. In time pressure, Bhagyashree executed her end game in precise manner, mating Vijayalakshmi's King with the 40th move.Though Vijayalakshmi's chances have not been dented, two consecutive defeats is expected to be crushing. She plays the leader, Swati Ghate, tomorrow.Swati and Pallavi drew in a dead end position. Pallavi played the Sicilian defence who had the material advantage of two rooks and bishops against rooks, bishop and knight of Swati. But Pallavi had just one pawn on the on the queen-side while Swati had two. Even if the rooks were exchanged off the game was not expected to take a decisive edge. They agreed to a draw after 25 moves. Pallavi needs two points from four rounds for her IWM norm.Nisha Mohota also suffered a defeat against N Sarita Reddy. Nisha misplaced the knight after her 13th move Nd6. Fifteen moves later, she went on to lose a piece and resigned on the 40th move.Defending champion Anupama had a two pawn advantage against Safira Shanaz but blew it to draw after 49 moves.Saheli Dhar-Barua drew against Sai Meera after 44 moves while Mrunalini Kunte and Swati Mohota shared a point after 61 moves. Purabhi Singha scored her second victory of the championships by defeating Neha Singh.
