They both work for the same company Air India and are very good friends. However, over the board it was a brutal fight. Meenakshi opened the game with 1.d4 and Bhakti played the Dutch Defence.
Meenakshi came to the tournament in not such a good condition health wise. In fact she was even planning to cancel her trip to the tournament. However, once she sat on the board she forgot everything about her health and played a perfect game to beat the National Challengers Champion. Here's her account of the game:
One only needs to remember how Bhakti made a comeback after losing her first round at the National Challengers 2017. It will be interesting to see if she can stage a similar comeback at the National Premiers.
In this position Mary finished off the game with a flourish. It's Black to play. What would you do?
Results of Round 2
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 12 | 2159 | WGM | Kiran Manisha Mohanty | 0 - 1 | WGM | Soumya Swaminathan | 2320 | 7 |
| 2 | 8 | 2324 | IM | Padmini Rout | 1 - 0 | WGM | Swati Ghate | 2277 | 6 |
| 3 | 9 | 1988 | Ghosh Samriddhaa | ½ - ½ | Bala Kannamma P | 2058 | 5 | ||
| 4 | 10 | 2190 | WIM | Nandhidhaa Pv | 1 - 0 | WIM | Chitlange Sakshi | 2248 | 4 |
| 5 | 11 | 2165 | WGM | Meenakshi Subbaraman | 1 - 0 | WGM | Kulkarni Bhakti | 2311 | 3 |
| 6 | 1 | 1885 | Pandey Srishti | 0 - 1 | WGM | Gomes Mary Ann | 2333 | 2 |
Ranking crosstable after Round 2
| Rk. | Name | Rtg | FED | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
| 1 | IM | Padmini Rout | 2324 | IND | * | 1 | 1 | 2,0 | 0,0 | 1,00 | 2,0 | |||||||||
| 2 | WGM | Soumya Swaminathan | 2320 | IND | * | 1 | ½ | 1,5 | 0,0 | 1,25 | 1,0 | |||||||||
| 3 | WIM | Nandhidhaa Pv | 2190 | IND | * | 1 | ½ | 1,5 | 0,0 | 1,25 | 1,0 | |||||||||
| WGM | Meenakshi Subbaraman | 2165 | IND | * | ½ | 1 | 1,5 | 0,0 | 1,25 | 1,0 | ||||||||||
| 5 | WGM | Gomes Mary Ann | 2333 | IND | ½ | * | 1 | 1,5 | 0,0 | 0,75 | 1,0 | |||||||||
| 6 | WIM | Chitlange Sakshi | 2248 | IND | 0 | * | 1 | 1,0 | 0,0 | 0,50 | 1,0 | |||||||||
| 7 | WGM | Kiran Manisha Mohanty | 2159 | IND | 0 | * | 1 | 1,0 | 0,0 | 0,00 | 1,0 | |||||||||
| 8 | WGM | Kulkarni Bhakti | 2311 | IND | ½ | 0 | * | 0,5 | 0,0 | 0,75 | 0,0 | |||||||||
| WGM | Swati Ghate | 2277 | IND | 0 | ½ | * | 0,5 | 0,0 | 0,75 | 0,0 | ||||||||||
| 10 | Bala Kannamma P | 2058 | IND | 0 | * | ½ | 0,5 | 0,0 | 0,25 | 0,0 | ||||||||||
| Ghosh Samriddhaa | 1988 | IND | 0 | ½ | * | 0,5 | 0,0 | 0,25 | 0,0 | |||||||||||
| 12 | Pandey Srishti | 1885 | IND | 0 | 0 | * | 0,0 | 0,0 | 0,00 | 0,0 |
Pairings of round 3
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 2 | 2333 | WGM | Gomes Mary Ann | WGM | Kiran Manisha Mohanty | 2159 | 12 | |
| 2 | 3 | 2311 | WGM | Kulkarni Bhakti | Pandey Srishti | 1885 | 1 | ||
| 3 | 4 | 2248 | WIM | Chitlange Sakshi | WGM | Meenakshi Subbaraman | 2165 | 11 | |
| 4 | 5 | 2058 | Bala Kannamma P | WIM | Nandhidhaa Pv | 2190 | 10 | ||
| 5 | 6 | 2277 | WGM | Swati Ghate | Ghosh Samriddhaa | 1988 | 9 | ||
| 6 | 7 | 2320 | WGM | Soumya Swaminathan | IM | Padmini Rout | 2324 | 8 |
