Vaishali emerges winner after triple-way tie on points

Tamil Nadu's R Vaishali emerged champion in the Ram Ratna 42nd National Women's Challenger Chess Championship today after tying on points with two others - Soumya Swaminathan and top seed Tania Sachdev - and being declared winner by the Buchholz tie-break system.
Woman FIDe Master Vaishali, Woman Grand Master Soumya of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board and International Master Tania of Air India finished with 9 points apiece at the conclusion of the eleventh and final round of matches here.
Vaishali got the better of state rival M Mahakshmi, also a WGM, in the last encounter today while Soumya and Tania defeated WGM Bhakti Kulkarni of Goa and WIM Michelle Catherina P respectively to be tied on points leading to the tie-break in which Vaishali won first place, Soumya second and Tania the third spot.

The other top eight finishers were: 4. WGM Bhakti Kulkarni (Goa) 8 points, 5. WFM Varshini V (TN) 8; 6. Neha Singh (Bih) 8; 7. WIM Michelle Catherina P(TN) 7.5; 8. Priyanka K (TN) 7.5 points.
These top eight finishers thus qualified for National A Chess Championship to be held in October.
Today's 11th round results: WGM Bhakti Kulkarni 8 points lost to WGM Soumya Swaminathan 9; WIM Michelle Catherina P 7.5 lost to IM Tania Sachdev 9; WFM Vaishali R 9 beat WFM Mahalakshmi M 7; WFM Varshini V 8 beat WIM Ivana Maria Furtado 7; Neha Singh 8 beat Srija Seshadri 6.5; WGM Ann Mary Gomes 7.5 beat WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty 6.5; Priyanka Nutakki 7.5 beat WFM Monnisha Gk 6.5; WGM Swati Ghate 7.5 beat WFM Saranya J 6.5; WIM Pratyusha Bodda 7.5 beat WCM Tejaswini Sagar 6.5; WFM Rucha Pujari 7 drew with Nimmy A G 7.