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Viji gets second IM norm

After securing the first woman's Grandmaster's title, women's national champion S Vijayalakshmi bagged her second International Master norm by winning a technically drawn game against Aarthie Ramaswamy in the penultimate round of the Wipro International Chess tournament in Hyderabad on Thursday.

Kazakh GM Vladimirov, who assured himself of the thtie on Wednesday, continued his dream run by outplaying Sandipan Chanda (India) to stretch his points tally to an enviable nine after 12 rounds.

Aarthie and Vijyalakshmi fought a hard battle in a Ruy Lopez opening leading to a technically drawn end game but Aarthie was declared loser 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 (India) suffered another set back against Russian GM Fominyh while Harikrishna (India) drew with S Ionov (Russia).