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Vijayalakshmi is India's first woman Grandmaster

Twenty-year-old Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi of Indian Airlines became the first woman Grandmaster of the country after she drew her ninth round game with Wipro's P Harikrishna in the Wipro international GMs chess championship at the Taj residency in Hyderabad Monday.

Four-time national champion Vijayalakshmi had three WGM norms and two IM norms (in men) to her credit. She needed just nine game norms to become India's first woman Grandmaster.

A tense Vijayalakshmi, or Viji as she is fondly called, was seen walking with a brisk pace in the tournament hall. When she trapped Harikrishna's queen, she asked for a glass of water from the arbiter, a rare move from her, and it was obvious she was not herself.

'It is a great day for me. My father, who called me up, said in a choked voice that he is proud of me,'' said the champion player who was initially trained by her father A S Subbaraman.

Viji's performance, average a rating of 2503 in this category-11 FIDE event, is the best result.

Confirming that she has become the first WGM of the country, All India Chess Federation general secretary P T Umer Koya, also chief arbiter of the tournament, said her feat could boost women's chess in the country.

Koya said: ''Let's see if we can figure out what makes this emerging star tick.''

He said Viji would get Rs 200,000 for her brilliant achievement.

Vijaylakshmi said: ''I was very tense this morning and played a safe game with Harikrishna and my opening game was not good. Before coming to the hall I read the Bhagvad Gita and decided to play my own game as in the earlier tournaments I had become a woman GM in mind and lost most of the matches. Today I just wanted to play my game and achieve this rare honour of becoming the first ever Indian Woman Grandmaster.''

UNI