Bhakti Kulkarni of Air India retains National Women title

• July 27, 2019
• in Chess, Chess Spotlights, Flash News, Tournament News

Defending champion Bhakti Kulkarni defended her title with whopping ten points out of possible eleven after drawing her final round game against Pratyusha Bodda of Andhra Pradesh in the 46^th National Women Chess Championship 2019 which concluded at Chettinad Public School, Karaikudi  on 27^th July, 2019.

Assured the title and Rs.4 lakhs as cash prize overnight, Bhakti tried hard to sign off the championship in style but Pratyusha had her chances early to the game but later the advantage slipped away from her whereas Bhakti also failed to convert the advantage and signed the peace treaty after sixty-two moves.

With eight and half points in the kitty, Vantika Agrawal of Delhi finished as first runner up after splitting the point with Mrudul Dehankar of Mahrashtra in the final round. Third seed Divya Deshmukh of Maharashtra matched Vantika on points after beating Nandhidhaa PV of Tamil Nadu but satisfied with second runner up position on tie break score. Vantika becomes richer by Rs.3 lakhs while Divya pocketed cash prize of Rs.2 lakhs.

In the glittering closing ceremony Shri J Jayakanthan IAS, District Collector of Sivagangai gave away the trophies and cash prizes to the winners in presence of Shri. R Anantharam, Vice President Tamil Nadu State Chess Association and Shri. SP Kumaresan, Chairman, Chettinad Public School.

Important Results

Round-11 :-  WGM Bhakti Kulkarni of Air India (10) drew with WIM Pratyusha Bodda of Andhra Pradesh (8); WCM Mrudul Dehankar of Maharashtra (8) v WIM Vantika Agrawal of Delhi (8.5); WIM Nandhidhaa PV of Tamil Nadu (7.5) lost to WIM Divya Deshmukh of Maharashtra (8.5); WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy of Air India (7) lost to WIM Srija Seshadri of Tamil Nadu (8); IM Nisha Mohota of PSPB (8) beat Priyanka K of Tamil Nadu (7); WIM Harshita Guddnati of Andhra Pradesh (7.5) beat Bala Kannamma P of Tamil Nadu (7); WGM Mary Ann Gomes of PSPB (7) drew with WIM Varshini V of Tamil Nadu (7); WGM Meenakshi S of Air India (7.5) beat Michelle Catherina of Tamil Nadu (6.5); WIM Sakshi Chitlange of Maharashtra (7.5) beat WCM Jyothsna L of Tamil Nadu (6.5); Rutuja Bakshi of Maharashtra (6.5) drew with WGM Soumya Swaminathan of PSPB (6.5); Toshali V of Andhra Pradesh (6) lost to IM S Vijayalakshmi of Air India (7); WFM Sanskriti Goyal of Uttar Pradesh (6) lost to WGM Swati Ghate of LIC (7); WCM Isha Sharma of Karnataka (7) beat Srishti Pandey of Mahrashtra (6); WFM Nityata Jain of Madhya Pradesh (7) beat Nandhini Saripalli of Goa (6); WFM Dhyana Patel of Gujarat (6.5) drew with WIM Bhagyashree Thipsay of Maharashtra (6.5); WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty of LIC (6.5) drew with Neha Singh of Bihar (6.5).

Top Ten Prize Winners