Defending champion Bhakti Kulkarni of Air India played out a draw against Pratyusha Bodda of Andhra Pradesh in the 11th and final round to emerge champion of the 46th National women’s chess championship at Chettinad Public School on Saturday.
The final round was just a formality as she was already assured of the title after having beaten K. Priyanka the other day. But Bhakti was eager to sign off with a win. Both had their chances of winning, but were content with a draw after 62 moves. With a final tally of 10 points, Bhakti not only went home having lifted the title, but also became richer by ₹4 lakh.
Vantika Agrawal of Delhi, with 8.5 points, finished second after splitting the point with Mrudul Dehankar of Maharashtra.
Divya Deshmukh was equal on points as she drubbed P.V. Nandhidhaa of Tamil Nadu. But Vantika, with a better tie-break score, pocketed ₹3 lakh and Divya ₹2 lakh. The District Collector of Sivaganga J. Jayakanthan gave away the trophies and cash prizes.
Important results (11th and final round, TN unless specified): Bhakti Kulkarni (AI) 10 drew with Pratyusha Bodda (AP) 8; Mrudul Dehankar (Mah) 8 drew with Vantika Agrawal (Del) 8.5; P.V. Nandhidhaa 7.5 lost to Divya Deshmukh (Mah) 8.5; Aarthie Ramaswamy (AI) 7 lost to Srija Seshadri 8; Nisha Mohota (PSPB) 8 bt K. Priyanka 7; Harshita Guddnati (AP) 7.5 bt P. Bala Kannamma 7; Mary Ann Gomes (PSPB) 7 drew with V. Varshini 7; S. Meenakshi (AI) 7.5 bt Michelle Catherina 6.5.
Sakshi Chitlange (Mah) 7.5 bt L. Jyothsna 6.5; Rutuja Bakshi (Mah) 6.5 drew with Soumya Swaminathan (PSPB) 6.5; V. Toshali (AP) 6 lost to S. Vijayalakshmi (AI) 7; Sanskriti Goyal (UP) 6 lost to Swati Ghate (LIC) 7; Isha Sharma (Kar) 7 bt Srishti Pandey (Mah) 6.
Nityata Jain (MP) 7 bt Nandhini Saripalli (Goa) 6; Dhyana Patel (Guj) 6.5 drew with Bhagyashree Thipsay (Mah) 6.5.
Final standings (top 20): 1. Bhakti Kulkarni (10); 2-3. Vantika Agrawal and Divya Deshmukh (8.5); 4-7: Pratyusha Bodda, Mrudul Dehankar, Srija Seshadri and Nisha Mohota (8); 8-11. P.V. Nandhidhaa, S. Meenakshi, Harshita Guddanti and Sakshi Chitlange (7.5); 12-20. K. Priyanka, S. Vijayalakshmi, Nityata Jain, Mary Ann Gomes, V. Varshini, P. Bala Kannamma, Aarthie Ramaswamy, Swati Ghate and Isha Sharma (7) .
