Mumbai, June 16: Defending champion and IWM S Vijayalakshmi of Indian Airlines maintained her lead with an easy win over unrated S Sujatha of Tamil Nadu in the ninth round of the 26th women's National chess championship at Kalyan on Friday.Vijayalakshmi, playing the black side of Caro-Kann Defence, benefited from her rival's mistake in the opening and captured a pawn free. Rest was a matter of technique for Vijayalakshmi, who played precisely and never let her opponent any chance. Sujata gave up on the 35th move.Safira, playing with black pieces, adopted the Sveshnikov Variation of Sicilian Defence. Pallavi, in a bid to win, avoided a variation leading to equality and chose to complicate the position.However, this helped her opponent's king from castling and helped her come up with a brilliant combination by sacrificing her bishop. Pallavi was in a mess and had to part with a rook and two pawn to run away with her king.As Safira's material superiority was overwhelming, Pallavi resigned on the 44th move.IWM Swathi Ghate of LIC, who was in a must-win position, had to split points with Saheli Dhar Barua while R Aarathi of Tamil Nadu showed a flicker of her attacking skills as she outsmarted statemate Y Prathiba from the black side of the Sicilian Defence.Aarathi forced prathiba into risky complications and when the dust settled, prathiba found herself with a bad position in the endgame.Aarathi handled the advantage perfectly and captured two of her opponent's pawns. Prathiba tried to put up some resistance but resigned when Aarthi created two passed pawns and threatened to promote one.Neha Singh of Bihar scored her first victory of the championship when she beat her roommate Baisakhi das of West Bengal in yet another match.Results (Round 9): S Vijayalakshmi (6.5 pts), Saheli Dhar Barua and S Shehnaz (5.5 each), S Meenakshi (5), Swathi Ghate, Pallavi Shah and Bhagyashree Thipsay (4.5), Anupama Gokhale and R Aarthi (4 each), S Sujatha (3.5), Prathiba (3), Neha singh (2.5), Baisakhi das (1).
