CHENNAI : With just two rounds remaining, defending champion Air India’s Bhakti Kulkarni was in command on Thursday, enjoying a one-and-a-half point lead over the nearest contenders at the end of ninth round of the 46th national women’s chess championship.Playing Modern Defence with white, Bhakti grounded teammate S Meenakshi in 37 moves to take her tally to eight-and-half points out of a possible nine. Bhakti’s nearest contender Vantika Agrawal of Delhi suffered her first defeat at the hands of National U-17 ch­a­mpion K Priyanka of Tam­il Nadu in 70  moves.

Priyanka  mo­ved to joint-second along with  Vantika. In a surprising result, Varshini of Tamil N­a­du shocked top seed Soumya Swaminathan of PSPB.Important results: Round 9: Bhakti Kulkarni (AI) 8.5 bt Meenakshi S 6.5; K Priyanka (TN) 7 bt Vantika Agrawal (DEL) 7; Mrudul Dehankar (MAH) 6.5 drew with Divya Deshmukh (MAH) 6.5; Varshini V (TN) 6.5 bt Soumya Swaminathan (PSPB) 6; Mary Ann Gomes (PSPB) 6.5 bt Swati Ghate (LIC) 5.5; Pratyusha Bodda (AP) 6.5 bt Bagyashree Thipsay (MAH) 5.5; Harshita Guddanti (AP) 5.5 lost to Nandhidhaa PV (TN) 6.5; Michelle Catherina (TN) 6.5 bt Sakshi Chitlange (MAH) 5.5; Vijayalakshmi S 6 bt Nandhini Saripalli (Goa) 5; Meenal Gupta (J&K) 5 lost to Srija Seshadri (TN) 6; Saranya J (TN) 5 lost to Nisha Mohota (PSPB) 6; Isha Sharma (KAR) 6 bt  Potluri Saye Srreezza (TEL) 5; Rutuja Bakshi (MAH) 5.5 drew with Parnali S Dharia (MAH) 5.5; Nityata Jain (MP) 6 bt Sanskriti Goyal (UP) 5; Kiran Manisha Mohanty (LIC) 5.5 drew with Meghna CH (RLYS) 5.5; Bala Kannamma P (TN) 6 bt Srishit Pandey (MAH) 5; Aarthie Ramaswamy (AI) 6 bt Sunyasakta Satpathy (ODI) 5. 

Lohith in final
Lohith Aksha beat M Kavin 8-7, 7-3 in the men’s singles semifinals of the SSN Open 2K19  tennis tournament.Results: (all semis): Singles: Men: Lohith Aksha bt M Kavin 8-7, 7-3; Siddarth Aarya bt Nikki Poonacaha (w/o). Women: Deepalakshmi Vanaraja bt Devaki Sai 8-4; Sai Avanthika bt Sagaya Angelin Shalini 8-1. Doubles: Men: Siddarth Aarya/Saran Anish bt Anirudh Kumar/Sukanthan 8-6; Krishna Teja Raja/Preeth Kumar bt Kavin/Lohith Aksha 8-7, 7-5.

Dilip shines
Dilip Kumar of Cue Zone defeated Arjun of Q Ball City 16-60, 71-8, 56-44, 48-59, 58-56 in the  third round of the Q Lounge All-India Open snooker tournament.Results: Round 3: Dilip (Cue Zone) bt Arjun (Q Ball City) 16-60, 71-8, 56-44, 48-59, 58-56; Imran (Smart  Shooters) bt Abid (Kerala) 39-51,14-56, 59-34,76-40, 57-25; Sheik Shoail (Nellore) bt Murali  (BG) 51-34, 28-52, 36-66, 51-19, 58-26;  Julvan (Pondy) bt Musavir Khan (Nellore) 48-15,  64-47, 82-50.

Wheelchair fencing meet
The Paralympic Volleyball Federation of India and the Wheelchair Fencing Federation of India and Para Volleyball Association of Tamil Nadu will conduct the 8th senior national  volleyball championship and the 12th national wheelchair fencing championship from July 26 to 28 at Jawaharlal Nehru indoor stadium.