UZBEKISTAN, May 30:
Woman Grandmaster Bhakti Kulkarni of India defeated Nguyen Thi Mai Hung of Vietnam to emerge as the sole leader in the Asian continental women’s chess championship here.
Bhakti’s brilliant run continued with her fourth victory out of five games and the Indian took her tally to an impressive 4.5 points out of a possible five, a half point ahead of nearest contender Gulrukhbegim Tokhir-jonova of Uzbekistan.
The higher-ranked Indians in the fray continued to have a tough time as Padmini Rout survived some anxious moments before splitting the point with Pham Le Thao Nguyen of Vietnam and Soumya Swaminathan could also manage just a draw against lower seed Li Xueyi of China. Mary Ann Gomes went down to compatriot B Pratyusha. (PTI)
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