The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Second GM norm for Vijayalakshmi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 12, 2006

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Sport - Chess

Second GM norm for Vijayalakshmi

Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI: S. Vijayalakshmi capped one of the finest performances of her chequered career in grand style in the 15th Kavala International Open chess tournament by bagging her second Grandmaster norm on Friday.

On the final day, the country's first Woman Grandmaster overpowered the 2005 women World champion Antoaneta Stefanova in 39 moves to finish with 6.5 points from nine rounds in Kavala, Greece.

Vijayalakshmi, a Deputy Manager with Indian Airlines, made her maiden norm in the Paris Open last July. After a huge jump in ratings, Vijayalakshmi fared poorly in the National `A' for women in April and later in the World Open in Philadelphia.

Seeded 31 in a field of 129 players including 18 GMs and three International Masters with ratings of 2525, the 2438-rated Vijayalakshmi faced six GMs and one IM after warming up at the expense of two lowly rated players.

Notably, Vijayalakshmi scored over IM Herberla Bartlomeij (Pol, rated 2551), GM Nick de Fermian (USA, 2559), GM Zvonko Stanojoski (Mkd, 2481) and finally Stefanova (Bul, 2520). She drew with GM Veljo Jeremic (SCG, 2527) before losing to Ukrainian GM Yuri Drozdovskij (2552) and Armenian GM Tigran Kotanjian (2515).

"The performance should give me around 30 to 40 rating points," revealed Vijayalakshmi to The Hindu soon after her victory over Stefanova. "Honestly, I am pleasantly surprised by my performance in the very first tournament of what is going to be a long series of competitions in Europe. This has boosted my confidence and I am determined to maintain my form in the coming weeks," she said.

Her sister S. Meenakshi finished with five points and narrowly missed an opportunity to make her third and final International Master norm while husband Sriram Jha tallied 5.5 points. The high point of Meenakshi's performance was her fourth-round victory over Stanojoski, who went on to lose to Vijayalakshmi in the eighth round.

The trio now plays in the Acropolis Open in Athens from Sunday.

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