Victorious Divya Deshmukh stretches lead at National women’s chess championship

With two rounds to go, Divya enjoys a one-point lead over Mary Ann Gomes and is 1.5 points ahead of Isha, Srija Seshadri, Vantika Agrawal, Soumya Swaminathan, V. Varshini, Sakshi Chitlange and Bhakti Kulkarni.

FILE PHOTO: Chess player Divya Deshmukh during a game against Switzerland at the 44th Chess Olympiad held atnear Chennai on August 7, 2022. | Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

Divya Deshmukh moved a step closer to retaining her title after beating C. M. N. Sunyuktha in the ninth round of the MPL National women’s chess championship at Kolhapur on Tuesday.

With two rounds to go, Divya enjoys a one-point lead over Mary Ann Gomes and is 1.5 points ahead of Isha, Srija Seshadri, Vantika Agrawal, Soumya Swaminathan, V. Varshini, Sakshi Chitlange and Bhakti Kulkarni.

What also helped Divya’s cause is the sequence of draws from the second to the fourth board.

Leading results:

Ninth round: C. M. N. Sunyuktha (6) lost to Divya Deshmukh (8); Mary Ann Gomes (7) drew with Vantika Agrawal (6.5); Soumya Swaminathan (6.5) drew with Isha Sharma (6.5); Sakshi Chitlange (6.5) drew with Srija Seshadri (6.5); Bhakti Kulkarni (6.5) bt Aashna Makhija (5.5); Nisha Mohota (6) drew with A. G. Nimmy (6); Saniya Tadavi (5.5) lost to V. Varshini (6.5); Samriddhaa Ghosh (6) drew with Vishwa Shah (6).