Bhakti Kulkarni maintains lead with impressive win

: Defending champion Bhakti Kulkarni of Air India came up with a fine performance on Wednesday to outwit Tamil Nadu's P V Nanhidhaa in the eighth round, to maintain sole lead with seven and half points in the 46th National Women Chess Championship here.

Bhakti displayed her class in a Scandinavian Defence game, which was looking equal till the 30th move, before cashing in on the opportunity that came her way to seal a win in 39 moves.

Meanwhile, Delhi's Vantika Agrawal (7 points) beat Michelle Catherina of Tamil Nadu in just 24 moves to remain in second spot.

With six and half points in the kitty, Air India's Women Grandmaster S Meenakshi moved to third spot after beating Pratyusha Bodda of Andhra Pradesh in the eighth round.

In other key clashes on Wednesday, top-seed Soumya Swaminathan of PSPB defeated Kiran Manisha Mohanty of LIC, third seed Divya Deshmukh of Maharashtra beat Nityata Jain of Madhya Pradesh and Mrudul Dehankar shocked Srija Seshadri.

Soumya, Divya and Mrudul, along with national under-17 champion K Priyanka, who defeated Potluri Saye Srreezza of Telangana, are in joint fourth spot with six points.

With three rounds remaining, Bhakti takes on Meenakshi, while Vantika and Divya are paired against K Priyanka and Mrudul Dehankar respectively in the ninth round on Thursday.

Important results: Round 8: P V Nandhidhaa (5.5) lost to Bhakti Kulkarni (7.5); Vantika Agrawal (7) beat Michelle Catherina (5.5); S Meenakshi (6.5) beat Pratyusha Bodda; Soumya Swaminathan (6) beat Kiran Manisha Mohanty (5); Divya Deshmukh (6) beat Nityata Jain (5).

Srija Seshadri (Tamil Nadu) (5) lost to Mrudul Dehankar (Maharashtra) (6); Bagyashree Thipsay (Maharashtra) (5.5) drew with Mary Ann Gomes (PSPB) (5.5); Potluri Saye Srreezza (Telangana) (5) lost to K Priyanka (Tamil Nadu) (6); Swati Ghate (LIC) (5.5) drew with Harshita Guddanti (Andhra Pradesh) (5.5).

Sakshi Chitlange (Maharashtra) (5.5) beat P Bala Kannamma (Tamil Nadu) (5); Priyanka Nutakki (AP) (5) drew with Aarthie Ramaswamy (Air India) (5); Nisha Mohota (PSPB) (5) drew with Rutuja Bakshi (Maharashtra) (5); Neha Singh (Bihar) (4) lost to S Vijayalakshmi (Air India) (5).