National Women's 2019 R05+06: Lady luck smiles on Vantika, Bhakti beats Divya

by Satanick Mukhuty - 23/07/2019

It was a double rounds day at the 46th National Women's Championship 2019. In the fifth round the top board saw a surprising escape when Bhakti Kulkarni blundered in a winning position and Vantika Agrawal salvaged a draw through perpetual. Divya Deshmukh won a nice tactical game in the same round playing the black pieces of a Sicilian against Varshini. The final round of the day saw more fire works as both Bhakti and Vantika crashed through winning against Divya and IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman respectively. After six rounds of the event Bhakti and Vantika share the lead with 5.5/6 points; while Soumya Swaminathan, Nandhidhaa P V, Michelle Catherina P, Pratyusha Bodda and Swati Ghate follow close behind with 5.0/6. Watch out for Swati, after the first round loss, she has scored 5.0/5!

Round 5: Divya Dazzles, Bhakti misses a win narrowly!

Divya Deshmukh might be just 13 years old but she is the third seed of the event and a sure shot contender for the national title | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

In round 5 of the 46th National Women's Chess Championship 2019 WIM Divya Deshmukh from Maharashtra was up against WIM Varshini V of Tamil Nadu. Divya had the black pieces and she opted for the Sicilian against Varshini's 1.e4. The latter went for the closed variation and on move 15 made a dubious pawn push in the center which allowed Black to tactically seize a dangerous initiative. Let us begin by looking at what happened in this game.

Varshini V - Divya Deshmukh, Round 5

Position after 14...Be6: White has a nice set of pawns standing on the fourth rank, 15.f5 and 15.d5 both look tempting but it is in White's favour to wait.

With 15.f5 comes 15...Bxc4 16.Qxc4 Ng4 after which Qh4 is a strong threat, in the game 15.d5 was played which also incurred similar repercussions, Black went 15...Ng4 immediately and after 16.Bxb6 Qxb6+ 17.Kh1 Bd7 all sorts of deadly tactics were lurking in the air. Take note, White simply couldn't take 16.dxe6 here because of 16...Bxe3+ after which, once again, comes the crushing Qh4!

Position after 17...Bd7: There's the standard smothered mate motif with Nf2+ Kg1 Nh3+ Kh1 Qg1+ Rxg1 Nf2# that White has to deal with now.

Understandably, 18.Nd1 was played, White had to cover the f2 square. Next with 18...exf4 19.Rxf4 Black had some nice tactics to punish White with!

Position after 19.Rxf4: Can you find the crushing continuation for Black?

The best move in the position is 19...g5, White's best option after this is really to give up the exchange with 20.Rxg4, check annotations below to know why. In the game however, Divya went for the less forcing 19...Ne5 but this was also good enough for her. After 20.Qf1 Qd4 21.Be2 Ng6 22.Rf3 Qxe4 she picked up a pawn and went on to win pretty comfortably.

Position after 22.Qxe4: White is simply boxed in while Black's pieces are slowly taking charge.

On the top board it was IM Bhakti Kulkarni versus WIM Vantika Agrawal. The latter got into some serious trouble but in the end was just lucky to wiggle out with a perpetual. In the background is the poster S. Lakshana, the under-7 world's school champion and a student of Chettinadu Public School, Karaikudi - the venue of the tournament. | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Bhakti had the White pieces and the following position was reached out of an orthodox King's Indian opening. Black had the bishop pair against White's knights but the closed nature of the position meant that White had the upper hand.

Bhakti Kulkarni - Vantika Agrawal, Round 5

Position after 47.Ne4: Practically, no doubt it is White who has better chances but the advantage is anything but decisive.

The computer gives 47...Qe8 to be the best move here, check the annotations below for a nice equalizing line suggested by the engine. In the game however what Black did was far from ideal, it was 47...g5 that was played and this put the h4 bishop completely out of play.

47...g5 wasn't the best show of judgement

Five moves later something drastic happened! 48.Qd1 Qg6 49.Qf3 Bd7 50.Nf1 Be1 51.Nfg3 Bxg3 was played and now White had to recapture on g3 but how?

Position after 51...Bxg3 - Can you guess the blunder that White made that led to a draw?

Obviously, 52.Qxg3 isn't possible as the knight on e4 is hanging. The only two options are therefore 52.Nxg3 and 52.Kxg3. The latter leads to a comfortable win for White. A general plan, for example, would be getting the queens exchanged and then taking the king over to the queenside and pushing a4, a5 etc. But in the game Bhakti played 52.Nxg3? and this was a serious error that cost her half a point. Vantika played 52...Qc2+ at once, alas! now White couldn't escape the perpetual anymore, 53. Kh3 Qh7+ 54. Kg2 Qc2+ 55. Kg1 Qc1+ followed. There is no use in blocking these checks, for instance 56.Qf1 leads to 56...Qxe3+ and 56.Nf1 to 56...Qxc4 where Black is winning. Thus, repetition was forced and the game ended in draw!

WIM Srija Seshadri won a nice game against WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty of LIC when the latter underestimated her opponent's initiative on the kingside | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Srija had the Black pieces, out of a Ruy Lopez opening already by move 16 she made advances towards Kiran's kingside. The latter had to pay the price for not taking the implications seriously.

Kiran Manisha Mohanty - Srija Seshadri, Round 5

Position after 16...Nh4: Black has already taken a stride towards White's kingside, ideas of sacrificing the knight on g2 is in the air.

White went 17.Nd5 in the above position and this was simply careless. After 17...Bd6 18.Bg5 Nxg2 19.Kxg2 Qg6 Black simply broke through and the game was resigned in just 27 moves.

IM Soumya Swaminathan was held to a draw by WCM Mrudul Dehankar of Maharashtra | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy held legendary IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman to a draw. The players fought a 73 moves long game to reach a drawn R versus R+P ending, For Aarthie the tournament is progressing quite well as she has draws against Viji and Michelle and win against K. Priyanka. | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Results of round 5

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	2	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2388	AI	4	½ - ½	4	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	2243	DEL	10
2	24	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	2074	MAH	3½	½ - ½	3½	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2402	PSPB	1
3	28	WGM	Ramaswamy Aarthie	2020	AI	3½	½ - ½	3½	IM	Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman	2357	AI	4
4	22	WIM	Varshini V	2087	TN	3	0 - 1	3	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	2373	MAH	3
5	26	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2054	LIC	3	0 - 1	3	WIM	Srija Seshadri	2306	TN	5
6	27		Bala Kannamma P	2051	TN	3	½ - ½	3	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	2293	AP	7
7	8	WIM	Pratyusha Bodda	2265	AP	3	1 - 0	3		Potluri Saye Srreezza	1999	TEL	30
8	32		Saranya Y	1959	TN	3	0 - 1	3	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	2259	TN	9
9	12	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	2226	TN	3	1 - 0	3	WFM	Meghna C H	1903	RSPB	38
10	29		Meenal Gupta	2004	J&K	3	½ - ½	3	IM	Mohota Nisha	2221	PSPB	13
11	45		Sunyasakta Satpathy	1801	ODI	3	0 - 1	3	WGM	Swati Ghate	2192	LIC	15
12	16	WCM	Sharma Isha	2188	KAR	3	1 - 0	3		Nandhini Saripalli	1933	GOA	36
13	18	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	2163	AI	3	1 - 0	3		Pandey Srishti	1882	MAH	40
14	20	WFM	Jain Nityata	2135	MP	3	1 - 0	3		Rindhiya V	1573	TN	66
15	43		Sunyuktha C M N	1815	TN	3	0 - 1	3	WIM	Thipsay Bagyashree Sathe	2093	MAH	21
16	35	WCM	Jyothsna L	1939	TN	2½	½ - ½	2½	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	2227	RSPB	11
17	14		Priyanka K	2217	TN	2½	1 - 0	2½		Abhirami Madabushi	1689	TEL	52
18	23	WIM	Harshita Guddanti	2078	AP	2½	1 - 0	2½		Shetye Siddhali	1837	MAH	42
19	33		Bakshi Rutuja	1958	MAH	2½	1 - 0	2½		Thamaraiselvi P	1752	TN	48
20	37		Toshali V	1920	AP	2½	0 - 1	2½	WFM	Sanskriti Goyal	1948	UP	34

Standings after round 5

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	10	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	IND	2243	DEL	4,5	0,5	15,0	17,0	14,75	4	1,82
2	2	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	IND	2388	AI	4,5	0,5	14,5	16,0	13,75	4	0,74
3	1	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	IND	2402	PSPB	4,0	0,0	14,5	16,5	12,75	3	-0,17
4	4	IM	Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman	IND	2357	AI	4,0	0,0	14,0	16,0	12,50	3	-1,14
5	9	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	IND	2259	TN	4,0	0,0	13,5	16,0	11,50	4	0,28
6	28	WGM	Ramaswamy Aarthie	IND	2020	AI	4,0	0,0	13,5	15,5	11,50	3	1,28
7	21	WIM	Thipsay Bagyashree Sathe	IND	2093	MAH	4,0	0,0	13,5	15,5	11,00	4	0,05
8	12	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	IND	2226	TN	4,0	0,0	13,0	15,0	11,50	3	0,04
	18	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	IND	2163	AI	4,0	0,0	13,0	15,0	11,50	3	0,52
10	3	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	IND	2373	MAH	4,0	0,0	13,0	14,5	11,00	3	-0,80
11	20	WFM	Jain Nityata	IND	2135	MP	4,0	0,0	12,5	14,5	10,50	4	-0,11
12	24	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	IND	2074	MAH	4,0	0,0	12,0	14,5	11,25	3	0,72
13	5	WIM	Srija Seshadri	IND	2306	TN	4,0	0,0	11,0	13,0	10,00	4	-0,66
	8	WIM	Pratyusha Bodda	IND	2265	AP	4,0	0,0	11,0	13,0	10,00	4	-0,14
15	15	WGM	Swati Ghate	IND	2192	LIC	4,0	0,0	11,0	12,5	10,00	4	-0,21
16	16	WCM	Sharma Isha	IND	2188	KAR	4,0	0,0	10,5	12,5	9,50	4	-0,70
17	23	WIM	Harshita Guddanti	IND	2078	AP	3,5	0,0	14,0	16,5	10,50	3	0,91
18	27		Bala Kannamma P	IND	2051	TN	3,5	0,0	13,5	15,5	9,25	3	0,59
19	13	IM	Mohota Nisha	IND	2221	PSPB	3,5	0,0	12,5	14,5	9,75	2	-0,87
20	14		Priyanka K	IND	2217	TN	3,5	0,0	12,0	14,5	9,25	3	-1,24

Round 6: Bhakti and Vantika crashes through!

Bhakti Kulkarni was up against the young talent Divya Deshmukh in the sixth round of the day | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Divya Deshmukh couldn't hold her own against Bhakti Kulkarni in the sixth round of the event. With the White pieces Divya adopted the Trompowsky attack and the following position was reached on move 12.

Divya Deshmukh - Bhakti Kulkarni, Round 6

White has made the move 12.Qf4 ... How do you assess this position?

It turns out that Black gets an edge after 12.Qf4 ... In the game a series of exchanges followed 12...Nxd4 13. exd6 Nxf3+ 14. gxf3 cxd6 15. Qxd6 Qe8 and in the resulting position Black had the bishop pair and White's king was still stuck in the middle of the board. It couldn't castle on the kingside, while the queenside too wasn't particularly safe with the g7 bishop breathing down the long diagonal. Suddenly White's position was difficult to play.

Position after 18.0-0-0: Black has developed her c8 bishop and White decided to castle long, not the most comfortable decision to make.

Position after 25...Rd5: Black brings every last piece into the foray. On the other hand, White doesn't really have a target to hit on.

At this point Divya crumbled all the more under pressure and played 26.Bd3 which allowed 26...Qxf3. Next, after 27.Re1 came the final blow of the game!

White has just played 27.Re1, Can you find the spectacular way to finish things off?

Yes, Bhakti played 27...Rxd3!, after 28.cxd3 Qxd3+ 29.Kc1 Bxe4 it was game over and White resigned just after two moves.

After saving her game narrowly in the previous round, WIM Vantika Agrawal pulled off a shocker in the sixth round by beating IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

It was Vantika's day today as she miraculously saved her fifth round game against Bhakti and in sixth round defeated IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman. Thus, after six rounds of the event she still remains on the top along with Bhakti with an impressive 5.5/6. Against Vijayalakshmi she played a Catalan and got a strong central pawn majority. Let's have a look at how she capitalized on it.

Vantika Agrawal - Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman, Round 6

Position after 20.e4: With this central thrust White's say in the position became apparent.

Position after 24.Ne5: After a series of exchanges on the a-file White opens up a discovery on the c5 bishop.

In the above Black went 24...Bxf2+ and 25.Kxf2 fxe5 followed and now White played 26.Rxb5!

Position after 26.Rxb5: Note if Black takes 26...Rxb5 then White has 27.Qc8+ Kf7 28.Qd7+ picking up the rook on b5

The game continued 26...Qf7+ 27. Ke1 and only now 27...Rxb5 was played but White had a different tactic in store in this case.

Position after 27...Rxb5: How should White finish the game off?

Vantika crashed through with 28.Qc8+ Qf8 29. Qxe6+ Kh8 30.exd5 and now her pair bishop in the open board was simply too much to handle. After only seven more moves Black had to call it a day!

It was after 38.Bg5+ in the above position that Black resigned!

Soumya Swaminathan won her sixth round encounter against WCM Isha Sharma with the White pieces in just 23 moves | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Nandhidhaa P V checkmated her opponent WCM Mrudul Dehankar | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Results of round 6

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	3	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	2373	MAH	4	0 - 1	4½	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2388	AI	2
2	10	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	2243	DEL	4½	1 - 0	4	IM	Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman	2357	AI	4
3	1	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2402	PSPB	4	1 - 0	4	WCM	Sharma Isha	2188	KAR	16
4	5	WIM	Srija Seshadri	2306	TN	4	½ - ½	4	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	2163	AI	18
5	20	WFM	Jain Nityata	2135	MP	4	0 - 1	4	WIM	Pratyusha Bodda	2265	AP	8
6	9	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	2259	TN	4	1 - 0	4	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	2074	MAH	24
7	21	WIM	Thipsay Bagyashree Sathe	2093	MAH	4	0 - 1	4	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	2226	TN	12
8	15	WGM	Swati Ghate	2192	LIC	4	1 - 0	4	WGM	Ramaswamy Aarthie	2020	AI	28
9	7	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	2293	AP	3½	1 - 0	3½		Meenal Gupta	2004	J&K	29
10	13	IM	Mohota Nisha	2221	PSPB	3½	½ - ½	3½		Bala Kannamma P	2051	TN	27
11	33		Bakshi Rutuja	1958	MAH	3½	½ - ½	3½		Priyanka K	2217	TN	14
12	34	WFM	Sanskriti Goyal	1948	UP	3½	0 - 1	3½	WIM	Harshita Guddanti	2078	AP	23
13	44		Singh Neha	1809	BIH	3	0 - 1	3	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2303	PSPB	6
14	11	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	2227	RSPB	3	1 - 0	3	WFM	Potluri Supreetha	1873	AP	41
15	17	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2168	MAH	3	½ - ½	3		Sunyuktha C M N	1815	TN	43
16	19	WIM	Parnali S Dharia	2145	MAH	3	1 - 0	3		Sheena E.	1763	KER	47
17	40		Pandey Srishti	1882	MAH	3	½ - ½	3	WIM	Varshini V	2087	TN	22
18	25	WFM	Saranya J	2067	TN	3	1 - 0	3		Boramanikar Tanisha S	1720	MAH	51
19	58		Shriya R Revankar	1627	KAR	3	0 - 1	3	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2054	LIC	26
20	30		Potluri Saye Srreezza	1999	TEL	3	1 - 0	3		Sunyasakta Satpathy	1801	ODI	45

Standings after round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	10	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	IND	2243	DEL	5,5	0,5	22,5	24,5	21,75	5	1,82
2	2	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	IND	2388	AI	5,5	0,5	21,5	23,5	20,75	5	0,74
3	1	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	IND	2402	PSPB	5,0	0,0	20,5	23,0	18,75	4	-0,17
4	9	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	IND	2259	TN	5,0	0,0	20,0	22,5	17,00	5	0,28
5	12	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	IND	2226	TN	5,0	0,0	18,5	21,5	18,00	4	0,04
6	8	WIM	Pratyusha Bodda	IND	2265	AP	5,0	0,0	16,5	18,5	15,50	5	-0,14
7	15	WGM	Swati Ghate	IND	2192	LIC	5,0	0,0	16,5	18,5	15,00	5	-0,21
8	23	WIM	Harshita Guddanti	IND	2078	AP	4,5	0,0	18,5	21,5	15,00	4	0,91
9	18	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	IND	2163	AI	4,5	0,0	18,0	20,5	14,75	3	0,52
10	5	WIM	Srija Seshadri	IND	2306	TN	4,5	0,0	18,0	20,0	14,75	4	-0,66
11	7	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	IND	2293	AP	4,5	0,0	16,0	17,5	12,50	4	-0,90
12	4	IM	Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman	IND	2357	AI	4,0	0,0	21,5	24,5	15,00	3	-1,14
13	28	WGM	Ramaswamy Aarthie	IND	2020	AI	4,0	0,0	21,0	24,0	14,50	3	1,28
14	3	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	IND	2373	MAH	4,0	0,0	21,0	23,0	13,25	3	-0,80
15	20	WFM	Jain Nityata	IND	2135	MP	4,0	0,0	20,5	23,5	13,50	4	-0,11
16	27		Bala Kannamma P	IND	2051	TN	4,0	0,0	20,5	22,5	12,75	3	0,59
17	32		Saranya Y	IND	1959	TN	4,0	0,0	20,0	22,5	13,50	3	1,11
18	21	WIM	Thipsay Bagyashree Sathe	IND	2093	MAH	4,0	0,0	20,0	22,5	12,00	4	0,05
19	30		Potluri Saye Srreezza	IND	1999	TEL	4,0	0,0	20,0	21,5	11,00	4	0,29
20	24	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	IND	2074	MAH	4,0	0,0	19,5	22,0	13,25	3	0,72

The seventh round will take place on 23rd of July at 10 a.m. You can follow the games LIVE here.

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