Top seed Indian WGM Koneru Humpy beat second seed Zhao Xue of China to emerge as sole leader with six points at the end of the seventh round in the 10th Asian women's chess championship in Kozikhode on Saturday.
Overnight joint leader IWM D Harika lost to compatriot S Vijayalakshmi and the duo was in the second spot along with Vietnam's Lie Kieu Thien Kim and Hoang Thanh Trang, with five points each.
Playing on the top board, Humpy employed the Reiti opening and allowed Xue to gain a slight advantage on the 11th and 16th moves. However, the Vijayawada girl, now well set to lift the championship with only two more rounds to go, cashed in on an error made by her opponent on the 45th and made a powerful tactical move.
Although Xue exchanged rook, Humpy went in for the attack and forced the Chinese to resign on the 52nd move with a mating threat.
On the second board, Vijayalakshmi went for Larson attack and took advantage of Harika's positional error on the 16th move. After the Chennai girl exchanged queen and bishop on the 18th and 19th moves, she got a clear advantage as her 'D' file opened up and also controlled the double rook. Harika was forced to resign after 76 moves.
Going in for queen exchange in the early moves, Vietnam's Kim, playing white on the third board, improved her position against China's Yuanyuan from the 21st move and had a double bishop advantage by the 43rd.
Kim tightened her grip by the 48th following a bishop exchange and Yuanyuan resigned on the 50th move.
Veteran Bhagyashree Thipsay, the last Indian to win the tournament in 1991, agreed to split points with Zhang Jilin of China. Thipsay and Jilin were in the 3rd spot with 4.5 pts each along with Yuanyuan and defending champion Li Ruofan of China who beat Kolkata girl Nisha Mohota, who was awarded WGM title last week.
Games involving Kazakhstan's Maria Sergeeva and Tania Sachdev, Gu Xiaobing (China)-Safira Shahnaz and Huang Qian (China)-Aarthie Ramaswamy all ended in a tame draw.
Third seed China's Wang Pin, who had so far a tough tournament, again lost to lowly-placed Saimeera Ravi, while Lanka's lone representative Vineetha Wijesuriya beat Priya to move to three points.
Results: (seventh round - Indians unless specified)
Koneru Humpy 6 bt Zhao Xue (CHN) 4.5; S Vijayalakshmi 5 bt D Harika 5; Le Kieu Thien Kim (VIE) 5 bt Xu Yuanyuan (CHN) 4.5; Wang Yu (CHN) 4 lost to Hoang Thanh Trang (VIE) 5; Bhagyashree Thipsay 4.5 drew with Zhang Jilin (CHN) 4.5; Tania Sachdev 4 drew with Maria Sergeeva (KAZ) 4; Gu Xiaobing (CHN) 4 drew with Safira Shahnaz 4; Huang Qian (CHN) 4 drew with Aarthie Ramaswamy 4; Nisha Mohota 3 lost to Li Ruofan (CHN) 4.5; Swati Ghate 3 lost to S Meenakshi 4; Shen Yang (CHN) 4 bt Tian Tian (CHN) 3; Nguyen Thi Thanh Anh (VIE) 3.5 bt Ruan Lufei (CHN) 3; Saimeera Ravi 3.5 bt Wang Pin (CHN) 2.5; Y Pratibha 3.5 bt Anupama Gokhale 2.5; J E Kavitha 3.5 bt Koneru Chandrahawsa 2.5; Vineetha Wijesuriya (SRI) 3 bt P Priya 2; Eesha Karavade 2.5 bt K Lakshmi Praneetha 1; Parveen Syeda Shabana (BAN) 1.5 lost to M R Sangeetha 2; Malinicheva Lidiya (UZB) 0.5 lost to Swati Mohota 2.5.
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