Kozhikode, Aug 21: Two Indians top seed Koneru Humpy and ninth seed Dronavalli Harika were leading with 4.5 points each after the fifth round of the 10th Asian women's chess championship here today.
Close on their heels was another Indian, S Vijayalakshmi with four points. Xu Yuanyuan, Zhao Xue, Gu Xiaobing, Zhang Jilin, Wang Yu (all China) and Le Kieu Thien Kim were trailing in the third spot with 3.5 points apiece.
Playing on the top-board, joint overnight leader Humpy engaged in queen's gambit game and sacrificed a pawn on the 20th move to make room for other pieces. Meanwhile, playing black, Gu Xiaobing blundered on the 30th and was trapped on the 41st move.
Harika made a bold move on the 25th after entering into queen's gambit to launch a fierce attack on her opponent's king side. She continued to maintain her forward march and forced her rival, Yuanyuan, to resign on the 47th move.
Employing English opening on the third board, Vijayalakshmi made her first attack on the sixth move. Inspite of losing pawns at regular intervals, she positioned her major pieces comfortably to win in 55 moves.
The game took an interesting turn after a queen exchange on the 21st, with the Chennai girl having only two pawns and two rooks, compared to Ruofan's six pawns, a rook and a bishop. However, it made full use of the exchange down in the 26th and forced Ruofan to resign.
Bureau Report