JOIN USIn a dramatic turnaround on the final day, another title contender Bangladeshi national champion Sultana Sharmin Shirin surprisingly lost her seventh round encounter to unheralded Sri Lankan player Sachini Ranasinghe and that leaved Nisha requiring just half point against to ensure the title.
Needed full point from final round outing, Pune based Kruttika went for an all out attack game in Ruy Lopez opening and sealed the victory in 64 moves and a place in World Cup. Nisha Mohota and top seed Tania Sachdev were tied at second spot with four points each but better tie break score helped Tania to claim second position while Nisha had to be content with third spot.
Sriram Jha took the sole lead with eight points after beating Gillani Tunveer of Pakistan.
Results (Indians otherwise stated): Men (tenth round): Sriram Jha (8) bt Gillani Tunveer (Pak, 3); Ahmed Ashraf (Mal, 1) lt to Reefat Bin-Sattar (Ban, 4.5); Surbir Lama (Nep, 3.5) bt Hapuarachchi HLM (SL, 2); K Rathnakaran (7) bt Ziaur Rahman (Ban, 6.5); Kesav Malla (Bhutan, 0) lt to Deepan Chakkravarthy (7.5); Praveen Thipsay (7.5) bt GM Neelotpal Das (7); Amir Karim (Pak, 2.5) bye.
Women (seventh round): Sachini Ranasinghe (SL, 2) bt Sultana Sharmin Shirin (Ban, 3.5); Monalisa Khamboo (Nep, 0) lt to Swathi Ghate (3); Kruttika Nadig (4.5) bt Nisha Mohota (4); Tania Sachdev (4) bye.
Women (final standings): Kruttika Nadig (4.5) 1; Tania Sachdev (4) 2; Nisha Mohota (4) 3.