Defending champion Bhakti Kulkarni of Air India continued her good run, outclassing teammate S. Meenakshi in 37 moves in the ninth round to remain one and a half points ahead of the field in the 46th National Women Chess Championship at Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu on Thursday.
Playing white side of modern defence, Women Grand Master Bhakti grounded fellow WGM Meenakshi to take her tally to eight and half points out of possible nine.
Meanwhile, Bhakti’s nearest rival Vantika Agrawal of Delhi suffered her first defeat in the championship, going down to National Under-17 champion K. Priyanka of Tamil Nadu in 70 moves in a modern defence game.
With this victory, Priyanka has moved to joint second position, along with Vantika on seven points.
READ: National Women's Chess Championship: Bhakti Kulkarni stays on top after round eight
In a surprise result, V. Varshini of Tamil Nadu shocked top-seed WGM Soumya Swaminathan of PSPB.
Playing with black in a Pirc Defence game, the No.1 seed made a blunder on the 31st move to hand the advantage to her rival and succumbed to defeat in 46 moves.
A pack of eight players including third-seed Divya Deshmukh of Maharashtra and three times champion Mary Ann Gomes of PSPB are in third spot with six and half points.
Divya drew her ninth round match against teammate Mrudul Dehankar while Ann Mary Gomes got the better of former champion Swati Ghate (LIC).
In the penultimate round on Friday, Priyanka is pitted against Bhakti while WIM Vantika takes on Ann Mary Gomes.
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