TEHRAN, Aug 12: Indian International Women Master Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman continued her winning spree defeating veteran IWM Rani Hamid (Bangladesh) in the 6th round of the Asian Zonal Chess championship at Kosar Hotel today.Vijayalakshmi, with a tally of 5.5 points after six rounds, is closely followed fellow countrywomen IWM Saritha Reddy (5) and Women Grandmaster Repkova Eid Eva from Lebanon (4) in third place.In the men's section Grandmaster Niaz Murshad (Bangladesh), International Master Ponnuswamy Konguvel (India) and International Master Lodhi Mahamood (Pakistan) are in the lead with five points each at the end of the seventh round.Indian national champion Abhijit Kunte, IM K Murugan (India), IM Hakki Imad (Syria) and IM Enamul Hossain (Bangladesh) are in the second spot with 4.5 points each, with the young Ghorbani Mohsrin (Iran) and Ome Arat Adel (Syria) in the third place with four points each.Vijayalakshmi, playing with white pieces, opened with `c4' and Rani Hamid replied with `c5' and it was a symmetrical English opening. The Indian got slight advantage in the opening itself and maintained it throughout the middle game.Saritha, who is just half a point behind Vijayalakshmi, defeated her rival Paridha Shirin of Iran in the sixth round in a King Indian defence game. She got an early advantage in the opening and was an exchange up in the middle game.In an English opening game, Anupama Gokhale, playing with black, won against Navabi Shirin of Iran in 45 moves. Anupama is in the fourth spot with 3.5 pts.Swati Ghate (3) enjoyed an easy victory over her Iranian rival Mahini Mona in just 17 moves. Another Indian woman, Safira Shanaz, playing Sicilian defence, won against Al Rufei Eman of Iraq, Shanaz is lying in the fourth position with 3.5 points.In the men's section, first three boards ended in draws. The game between GM Niaz Murshad and Enamul Hossain (both Bangladesh) saw an early agreement to split point in just 10 moves.In the second board the `d4' opening of IM Lodhi Mahamood (Pak) was countered by Indian IM K Murugan with Tarrasch Defence.Though Murugan was a pawn down, he got control of the centre and initiated a strong attack. Lodhi was forced to return the extra pawn and an even position was reached in the middle game. Both agreed to share point in the 33rd move.Senguptas dominateNAGPUR: THE Sengupta brothers from West Bengal continued to dominate the proceedings in the second round of the 4th BPCL FIDE Rating Chess Tournament on the second day too.Deep, the younger, beat former Rajasthan champ SS Dave of Indian Airlines in 45 moves of French defence exchange variation, while Pratik, the elder, who held top seed TS Ravi to a draw in the first round yesterday, needed 29 moves to force a draw on 44th seed Pranjal Das of W Bengal.
