Vijayalakshmi, Padmini share lead

Second seed Grandmaster-elect S Vijayalakshmi of Air India and defending champion Padmini Rout of PSPB enjoyed second round wins to share lead in the 43rd National Women Premier Chess Championship, here today.
After a crushing victory over Kiran Manisha Mohanty of LIC in the previous round, Vijayalakshmi accounted for another LIC player - Woman Grandmaster Swati Ghate in another fine game displaying top form.
Padmini had a lucky victory in the opener against Pratyusha Bodda of Andhra Pradesh but the Odisha girl struck form and R Vaishali of Tamil Nadu was no match after some wily manoeuvres.
With nine rounds still to come in the 12-players round-robin event, Vijayalakshmi and Padmini share lead on two points and they are now followed by PSPB duo of top seed Eesha Karavade and Asian continental bronze medallist Soumya Swaminathan.

In the decisive encounters of the day, Soumya outclassed M Mahalakshmi of Tamil Nadu while Eesha scored her first victory at the expense of Pratyusha Bodda.
In other games of the day, P Bala Kannamma continued with her fine run and held Kiran Manisha Mohanty to a draw while Mary Ann Gomes and Nisha Mohota also reached the same result.
Yet again the day belonged to Vijayalakshmi who played some imaginative chess beat Swati Ghate. The Queen pawn opening by the former was met by some irregular response and Vijayalakshmi was quick to seize the initiative in the middle game. The game ended through a picturesque tactical trick resulting in material gain for Vijayalakshmi. The game lasted 30 moves.

Results round 2: Mary Ann Gomes (PSPB. 1) drew with Nisha Mohtoa (PSPB, 1); M Mahalakshmi (TN, 1) lost to Soumya Swaminathan (PSPB, 1.5); S Vijayalakshmi (AI, 2) beat Swati Ghate (LIC, 0); P Bala Kannamma (TN, 1.5) drew with Kiran Manisha Mohanty (LIC, 0.5); Padmini Rout (PSPB, 2) beat R Vaishali (TN, 0); Eesha Karavade (PSPB, 1.5) beat Pratyusha Bodda (AP, 0).