Divya Deshmukh in sight of title, stuns top seed Vaishali for seventh straight win

Divya Deshmukh posted her seventh consecutive victory from eight rounds by foxing Vaishali in the opening phase and closing out in 37 moves by bringing the queen back on the board.

File image of Divya Deshmukh.

Continuing her dream-run, Divya Deshmukh brushed aside top seed R. Vaishali to move within a draw of winning the National women’s chess championship here.

On Tuesday, the youngster from Maharashtra posted her seventh consecutive victory from eight rounds by foxing Vaishali in the opening phase and closing out in 37 moves by bringing the queen back on the board.

Armed with a one-point lead, Divya needs only a draw against Soumya Swaminathan in the final round on Wednesday to win the title.

N. Priyanka (6.5) defeated Pratyusha Bodda to hold the second place. Trailing half-a-point from Priyanka are Soumya, Padmini Rout, Arpita Mukherjee, Sakshi Chitlange, Srija Seshadri and Isha Sharma.

Important results:

Eighth round: R. Vaishali (5.5) lost to Divya Deshmukh (7.5); Soumya Swaminathan (6) drew with Padmini Rout (6); N. Priyanka (6.5) bt Pratyusha Bodda (5.5); Arpita Mukherjee (6) drew with Mary Ann Gomes
(6); Sakshi Chitlange (6) bt Bhakti Kulkarni (5); Isha Sharma (6) bt Saina Salonika (5); Vrushali Deodhar (0) lost to Srija Seshadri (6)