Fifth seed WGM Bhakti Kulkarni (Air India) with 8.5 points continuing her excellent form beat overnight leader and top-seed WGM Soumya Swaminathan of PSPB to emerg as the sole leader after ten rounds. With this win Bhakti has brightened her chances of winning the title on 44th National Women Challengers Chess championship 2017 being held at Sri Kanteerava Narasimharaja Sports Club in city.

Playing on the top board with black pieces, Bhakti Kulkarni was involved in a keen tussle with top-seed Soumya Swaminathan. She forged ahead in the middle game capitalising on the errors committed by Soumya and the board in 49 moves.

As far as other results are concerned, second seed Mary Ann Gomes of PSPB with 8 points from ten rounds is placed second in the ranking. She scored a well earned win over fourth seed IM Nisha Mohota (PSPB) in 54 moves in the tenth round.

Three players, WGM Soumya Swaminathan, P. Bala Kannamma (TN) and Srishti Pandey (MAH) are tied with 7.5 points and are placed from third to fifth in the rankings after the tenth round. Eleven players are tied with 6.5 points and are placed from 14 to 24 in the rankings after the tenth round.

Important Results

Round 10

Soumya Swaminathan (7.5) lost to Bhakti Kulkarni (8.5); Nisha Mohota (6.5) lost to Mary Ann Gomes (8); Meenakshi Subbaraman (6.5) lost to Bala Kannamma (7.5); Srishti Pandey (7.5) beat Kiran Manisha Mohanty (6.5); G. Sandhya (7) drew with Parnali S. Dharia (7); L. Jyotsna (7) drew with Chitlange Sakshi (7); Arpita Mukherjee (7) beat C. Lakshmi (6.5), Sanskriti Goyal (6) lost to Nandhidhaa Pv (7); Rucha Pujari (7) beat R. Divya Lakshmi (6); Ghosh Samriddhaa (7) beat G. Harshitha (6), Swati Ghate (6.5) beat Makhija Aashna (5.5), N.L.V. Anusha (5.5) lost to Srija Seshadri (6.5); P. Michelle Catherine (6) drew with Shetye Siddhali (6), M. Mahalakshmi(6.5) beat Stuti Bhanot (5.5); Chandreyee Hajra (6.5) beat Swera Ana Braganca (5.5).