Kolhapur: WGM Divya Deshmukhof Maharashtra successfully defended her title at the 48th Indian Women National Championship here on Thursday.
She defeated IM Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa) in the final round to become a clear champion 9.5/11. WGM Mary Ann Gomes (PSPB) finished second 9/11 by winning against WIM Rucha Pujari (MAH) and WGM Vantika Agrawal (DEL) defeated IM Nisha Mohota (PSPB) to finish third 8.5/11. Since 2011, every National Women’s champion has won the title at least twice in-a-row, and Divya maintained that record.
The Top Five Boards of the last round ended in decisive results where Divya blown Bhakti’s rock solid Modern Defense: Standard, Two Knights Variation to finish on the Top Spot. Mary Ann Gomes of PSPB won her hard fought game against local favourite WIM Rucha Pujari in an English Opening: Neo-Catalan variation. Top seeded Vantika Agrawal of Delhi was up against IM Nisha Mohota of PSPB where Vantika started off the game with Réti Opening:
Nimzo-Larsen Variation and won it comfortably and managed a podium finish. WIM Sakshi Chitlange of Maharashtra and WIM Isha Sharma of Karnataka also won their games comfortably against Nimmy AG and Vishwa Shah respectively.
The total prize fund of the event was Rs 30,00,000/- where Divya bagged home a purse of Rs 6,00,000/- and a glittering trophy. The Detailed prize winners list is as follows :
Winner : WGM Divya Deshmukh (ELO :2347) of Maharashtra INR 600,000/-
Runner Up : WGM Gomes Mary Ann (ELO :2320) of PSPB INR 500,000/-
Second Runner Up : WGM Vantika Agrawal (ELO :2352) of Delhi INR 400,000/-
4th Place : WIM Chitlange Sakshi (ELO :2213) of Maharashtra INR 300,000/-
5th Place : WIM Sharma Isha (ELO :2212) of Karnataka INR 250,000/-
6th Place : IM Kulkarni Bhakti (ELO :2319) of Goa INR 250,000/-
7th Place : IM Soumya Swaminathan (ELO :2322) of PSPB INR 200,000/-
8th Place : WGM Srija Seshadri (ELO :2204) of Tamil Nadu INR 200,000/-
9th Place : WIM Arpita Mukherjee (ELO :2211) of West Bengal INR 150,000/-
10th Place : WGM Varshini V (ELO :2141) of Tamil Nadu INR 150,000/-
