Bhakti and Vantika share lead National Women Chess Championship 2019
Vantika Agrawal of Delhi
Second seed and former Asian champion Bhakti Kulkarni of Air India along with Delhi teenager Vantika Agrawal are now leading the table with perfect score after beating five time national champion Bhagyashree Thipsay of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu Women International Master Nandhidhaa PV respectively in the fourth round of the ongoing 46th National Women Chess Championship-2019 sponsored by Chettinad Public School.
Bhakti Kulkarni of Air India
Playing black side of Giuoco Piano opening, Bhakti tactically not allowed space for her seasoned campaigner opponent to develop the pieces and gained double pawn advantage towards the end to seal the game in 44 moves while playing with dark pieces in a Rossolimo variation of Sicilian defense game, Vantika used her pair of Bishops to good effect against Nandhidhaa’s pair of Knights in the middle game to garner full point after 41 moves.
Surprising results of the day, three time national champion Women Grandmaster Mary Ann Gomes of PSPB suffered a shock defeat by the hands of Srishti Pandey of Maharashtra and Mrudul Dehankar of Maharashtra outwitted higher ranked Mahalakshmi M of Railways. Continuing her fine run, Nandhini Saripalli of Goa held Women International Master Michelle Catherina of Tamil Nadu.
In other important encounters in the fourth round, top seed Soumya Swaminathan of PSPB defeated overnight joint leader Nityata Jain of Madhya Pradesh while six time national champion S Vijayalakshmi got better off Harshtia Guddanti of Andhra Pradesh, who held Soumya in the third round. A pack of four players including Soumya and Vijayalakshmi are now trailing behind the leaders with a drift of half point in this eleven round swiss system event with a prize fund of Rs. 15 lakhs.
In the fifth round, Bhakti takes on Vantika while Mrudul paired with Soumya and Vijayalakshmi takes on teammate Aarathie Ramaswamy, who beat National Under-17 champion Priyanka K in the fourth round battle.
Earlier the fourth round proceedings were inaugurated by Shri. V Hariharan, former Secretary of All India Chess Federation and Tamil Nadu State Chess Association.
Important Results
Round-4 :- WIM Bagyashree Thipsay of Maharashtra (3) lost to WGM Bhakti Kulkarni of Air India (4); WIM Nandhidhaa PV of Tamilnadu (2) lost to WIM Vantika Agrawal of Delhi (4); WGM Soumya Swaminathan of PSPB (3.5) beat WFM Nityata Jain of Madhya Pradesh (3); WIM Divya Deshmukh of Maharashtra (3) drew with WGM Meenakshi S of Air India (3); IM Vijayalakshmi S of Air India (3.5) beat WIM Harshita Guddanti of Andhra Pradesh (2.5); WIM Mahalakshmi M of Railways (2.5) lost to WCM Mrudul Dehankar of Maharashtra (3.5); Nandhini Saripalli of Goa (3) drew with WIM Michelle Catherina of Tamilnadu (3); IM Nisha Mohota of PSPB (3) drew with WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty of LIC (3); WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy of Air India (3.5) beat Priyanka K of Tamilnadu (2.5); WGM Swati Ghate of LIC (3) beat WCM Jyothsna L of Tamilnadu (2.5); WIM Srija Seshadri of Tamilnadu (3) beat WFM Dhyana Patel of Gujarat (2); Srishti Pandey of Maharashtra (3) beat WGM Mary Ann Gomes of PSPB (2); WIM Priyanka Nutakki of Andhra Pradesh (3) beat WFM Potluri Supreetha of Andhra Pradesh (2); Neha Singh of Bihar (2) lost to WIM Pratyusha Bodda of Andhra Pradesh (3); Smaraki Mohanty of Odisha (2) lost to WCM Isha Sharma of Karanataka (3).
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