Viji, 23, a favourite here at the Rs two lakh prize money All-India Open FIDE rating chess tournament here says: ``It's basically been a change of decision in the past few months. I was focused on completing my Women's Grandmaster title. But after getting the second WGM norm in January 1998 (at Linares, Spain), I was unable to get the desired results. I should have completed the final norm a long time back, but missed many a time by narrow margins.''

The IWM from TN is basically aiming higher. Explains Viji: ``IM norm title is much stronger than the WGM.Anyway, if I get the IM title, I will automatically get the WGM title.'' Viji till now has only one IM norm --gained at the 1995 Commonwealth Chess at Calcutta -- and has to get two more before achieving her dream.

But why this change of decision? ``My father (A Subburaman -- also her coach) insisted on going for the men's IM norm. But I was a little too greedy. Now I have realised that his suggestion was right and it is his dream of me becoming a men's GM too. Today, it's my dream as well.''

However, Viji happens to be a fatalistic person. ``I am a person who believes in fate. I believe my success depends on hard work and to some extent, on luck,'' she says.

Viji, who skipped the Biel Open now under way in Switzerland and the British Open that follows, says her immediate assignment will be the Maldova World Championship in September this year. The reason she says she did not play the two tourneys, which could have helped her cause is because of the cost factor. ``The government had cleared the airpassage for us, but staying there for almost a month would have been difficult without sponsorship.'' So she chose to play in Aurangabad with the sole aim of increasing her Elo points, which as of the latest FIDE ratings list (July 99) stands at 2326.

On her defending the National `A' title and winning it for the third time, the Indian Airlines employee feels that except for her first round result, where she lost to Swati Ghate, it was very good. ``I only wish I won on an unbeaten note.''

Viji, however admits that the loss to Swati was due to a combination of a wrong opening move and a bit of ill health, though she does not want to make that as an excuses for the defeat.

She is of the opinion that the championship at Kozhikode was relatively easy as compared to last year with the absence of Saheli Dhar-Barua. ``Her absence weakened the competition.''

Viji's appetite for a challenge is unmistakable. And for those who think it's a man's world ... they've probably got another thing coming.