HYDERABAD, JULY 27: After securing the first WGM title, women National champion S Vijayalakshmi won the second International Master (IM) norm by winning a technically drawn game against Aarthie Ramaswamy (Ind) in the penultimate round of the Wipro International chess tournament here on Thursday.Kazak GM Vladimirov, who already won the title, continued his dream run by outplaying Sandipan Chanda (Ind) to stretch his points tally to an enviable nine after 12 rounds.Aarthie and Vijyalakshmi, two roommates form Chennai, fought out a hard and pitched battle in a Ruy Lopez opening leading to a technically drawn end game but Aarthie was declared lost on time after prolonged confabulations involving arbirters, officials and palyers.Winning by default, the 21-year Vijayalakshmi secured 5.5 points to grab the second IM norm in men's category. Aarthie, who pleaded ignorance about the time rules lost the game despite the end position pronouncing a technical draw.In the other games, Vladimirov demolished the novelty Sandipan Chanda tried in a Ruy Lopez and Sasikiran (Ind) suffered another set back against Russian GM Fominyh while Harikrishna (Ind) drew with S Ionov (Rus). In the controversial game, Vijayalakshmi gave away a pawn to Aarthie in the opening to create active play and positioned her double bishop at advantageous flanks.Aarthie retained the extra pawn till a rook ending was reached where Viji's `b' passer swallowed her opponent's rook. But the position remained rather equal with Aarthie having three united passed pawns and promoted one to a knight instead of a queen to avoid a mate.Viji played some interesting moves at the hour of crisis and trapped Aarthie's kinght. Theoritically, the resultant position was a draw but Aarthie lost on time.She had 40 minutes when the end position was reached but claimed a draw with only less than two minutes left on the clock. The arbiter asked her to continue and when she could not find the appropriate moves to retrieve her knight from attack she was declared lost on time.The technical decision helped Viji to complete her second IM norm in the men's category. Sandipan's experiment in the most analysed Ruy Lopez was sharply demolished by champion Vladimirov who had drawn up a long term strategy for a win with an initial bait of Queen for just a rook. The Indian fell into the GM's trap.Vladimirov's designs unfolded in a slow and lethal fashion when he won one more rook and few Queen side pawns. Playing with black pieces, Vladimirov castled on the Queen side and launched a fierce tirade on the opponent's King side.Though Sandipan fought with valour, he was no match to the intrigue of Kazak genius and had to give up after 65 moves in an opposite colour bishop ending with three pawns down.In a wild game with complexed conflicts, Fominyh, who was one whole rook down at one stage, played with amazing precision to mount pressure on Sasikiran's King side and win.Infusing unorthodoxy into the play, Harikrishna went on to develop his rook without castling against Ionov, who had a slight advantage in the end-game. Hari, playing cautiously, salvaged a draw after 46 moves, while DV Prasad and Abhijit Kunte of India played a quiet 18 moves and agreed for a draw.Results: P Harikrishna drew Ionov; Sandeepan Chandan lost to Vladimirov; Sasikiran lost to Fominyh; Aarthi Ramaswamy lost to Vijayalakshmi; DV Prasad drew Abhijit Kunte; SS Ganguly had a bye; Sorokin finished his matches.
