Srija Seshadri stuns fancied Belgian IM Anna Zozulia

Indian WIM Srija Seshadri bounced back to winning ways when she handed a shock defeat to Belgian IM Anna Zozulia in a ninth round match of the SBI Life-AICF Women Grandmaster Chess Championship at The Acres Club, Chembur.

The Tamil Nadu player Srija with an ELO rating of 2207, who had scored three successive wins in the fourth, fifth and sixth rounds before losing the next and drawing the eighth, produced a gallant display to outwit the higher ranked Belgian Anna (ELO 2314) on the third board to grab her fourth win. She had earlier defeated compatriots WIM Vantika Agrawal (IND, 2279), WIM Aakanksha Hagawane (ELO 2297) and WFM Divya Deshmukh (IND, 2138). She now shares the fourth position with Uzbekistan’s WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova (ELO 2379).

Meanwhile on the sixth board, Hagawane scored an impressive win against her Indian teammate Divya Deshmukh (IND, 2138) to jump into joint third place with Vietnam’s WGM Thi Kim Phung Vo (ELO 2376), both with  5.5 points each.

Top-seeded IM Munguntuul of Mongolia (ELO 2410) sustained her winning run defeating India’s Rakshitta Ravi (ELO 2067) in the Italian Game in 48 moves for her third win on the trot. The Mongolian is now half a point behind Kazakhstan’s WGM Guliskhan Nakhbayeva (ELO 2323) who continues to occupy the top position with seven points. Guliskhan overcame Russian WIM Elena Tomilova (ELO  2334) to also register her second consecutive victory to consolidate her position at the top.

The crucial penultimate round encounter between these two players will decide the likely champion of the event.