National Women's Championship: Mary Ann Gomes inches closer to the title beating Meenakshi Subbaraman

by Aditya Pai - 25/11/2018

The penultimate round of the National Women's Championship saw Mary Ann Gomes of PSPB emerge as the clear leader. On the top board, Mary defeated Meenakshi Subbaraman to take sole lead while her co-leader, Mahalakshmi M, tripped and lost with black against Saranya J. After her previous round loss, Bhakti Kulkarni made a strong comeback beating Michelle Catherina and retained her sole second place. As the tournament reaches its final round, Bhakti is hot on Mary's heels, just half a point behind. Round 10 report.

Mary takes the lead

The penultimate round of the National Women's Championship in Jaipur, Rajasthan saw Mary Ann Gomes (2286) of PSPB take sole lead in the tournament after defeating Meenakshi Subbaraman (2191) on the top board. At the same time, Mary's co-leader after round 9, WIM Mahalakshmi M (2198) suffered a shock defeat at the hands of WFM Saranya J (2049) and slipped down to the joint third spot. WGM Bhakti Kulkarni (2256) of Air India retained her second place in the meanwhile, beating Michelle Catherina P (2182) in a queen endgame that arose out of a complicated Nimzo-Indian.

The top board game of the round resolved surprisingly fast in the endgame. Meenakshi Subbaraman, who had the white pieces in this game against Mary Ann Gomes, had reached a roughly equal position out of a Bogo Indian Defence. Having traded all minor pieces, the players reached an endgame where Subbaraman seemed to be treading on tightropes. On the 28th move, Subbaraman offered a queen trade and that was the last straw. Subbaraman lost a pawn just three moves after this and it all went downhill from there.

Mary Ann Gomes took sole lead in the tournament with her win over Meenakshi Subbaraman | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

On the second board, disaster struck for Mary's co-leader, WIM Mahalakshmi M as she suffered a shocking upset against Saranya J, who is rated about 100 points below Mahalakshmi. With the white pieces, Saranya had essayed the 3.Nc3 variation of the Caro-Kann defence and had managed induced an early exchange of queens. An equal position arose out of the opening but after a few passive moves on Mahalakshmi's part, white got a strong kingside initiative.

Position after 23.Rhe1

Things went wrong for black after she played 23...Be6 here. Saranya immediately pounced at the opportunity with 24.Nh5. And after black went 24...f6 to defend the g7 pawn, there followed 25.bxc6 Rxd1+ 26.Kxd1 bxc6. And then...

Saranya found the stunning 27.Bxf6!!

This was simply a knock out punch. Black has no defence now. If the bishop is taken, white has 28.Nxf6+ Kf7 29.Nxe8 and white's attack on the e6 bishop decides matters. Mahalakshmi went for 27...Kf7 here but after 28.Nxg7 Bg4+ 29.hxg4 Rxe1 30.Kxe1 Kxf6 31.Nf5, white was two clear pawns ahead.

Position after 31.Nf5

Saranya J played a fine tactical game to defeat Meenakshi M in round 10

One board below, on the third board, Bhakti Kulkarni, who was half-a-point behind the leaders, made a strong comeback after her loss against Mary Ann Gomes in the previous round, and defeated Michelle Catherina with the black pieces. The game had turned razor sharp quite soon as Bhakti castled into a shattered queenside while Michelle castled by hand to get her king to g7. After the dust of the battle had settled, the players had reached a queen endgame with equal material. Bhakti had a slight pull in the position and persevered until the 65th move to bring home the full point.

Bhakti Kulkarni won after a 65 move marathon and retained her second place on the leaderboard | Photo: Ankit Dalal

With just one round to go, Bhakti will be in a must win situation in the final round to keep her chance of title contention alive. However, if Gomes, who is half-a-point ahead, wins her final game, she will be the one to run away with the title. Four players, including Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman (2365), Mahalakshmi M, Saranya J and Nandhidhaa PV (2240), share the third place at 7.5/9. If some results go their way, one of these players might also have an outside shot at the title.

Standings (top 10)

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	IND	2286	PSPB	8,5	0,0	59,5	63,5
2	4	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	IND	2256	AI	8,0	0,0	59,5	63,5
3	1	IM	Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman	IND	2365	AI	7,5	0,0	61,0	65,5
4	11	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	IND	2198	RSPB	7,5	0,0	60,5	65,5
5	22	WFM	Saranya J	IND	2049	TN	7,5	0,0	55,5	59,5
6	6	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	IND	2240	TN	7,5	0,0	52,5	56,5
7	8	WIM	Srija Seshadri	IND	2224	DEL	7,0	0,0	52,5	57,0
8	7	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	IND	2237	MAH	7,0	0,0	50,0	54,0
9	23		Priyanka Kumari	IND	2005	JHA	6,5	0,0	63,5	68,5
10	13	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	IND	2182	TN	6,5	0,0	58,0	62,5

Results of round 10

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	12	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	2191	6½	0 - 1	7½	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2286	2
2	22	WFM	Saranya J	2049	6½	1 - 0	7½	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	2198	11
3	4	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2256	7	1 - 0	6½	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	2182	13
4	23		Priyanka Kumari	2005	6½	0 - 1	6½	IM	Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman	2365	1
5	6	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	2240	6½	1 - 0	6½	WFM	Arpita Mukherjee	2090	19
6	16		Nimmy A.G.	2136	6	½ - ½	6	IM	Mohota Nisha	2276	3
7	7	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2237	6	1 - 0	6	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	1859	39
8	8	WIM	Srija Seshadri	2224	6	1 - 0	6	WCM	Isha Sharma	2151	15
9	31		Saranya Y	1898	5½	½ - ½	5½	WGM	Swati Ghate	2256	5
10	38		Smaraki Mohanty	1867	5½	½ - ½	5½	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	2210	9

Round 11 pairing

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2286	8½		7½	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	2240	6
2	22	WFM	Saranya J	2049	7½		8	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2256	4
3	1	IM	Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman	2365	7½		7½	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	2198	11
4	7	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2237	7		7	WIM	Srija Seshadri	2224	8
5	3	IM	Mohota Nisha	2276	6½		6½		Bala Kannamma P	2101	18
6	48		Deodhar Vrushali Umesh	1793	6½		6½		Priyanka K	2207	10
7	19	WFM	Arpita Mukherjee	2090	6½		6½	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	2191	12
8	13	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	2182	6½		6½		Nimmy A.G.	2136	16
9	56		Mehendi Sil	1633	6½		6½	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2164	14
10	5	WGM	Swati Ghate	2256	6		6½		Priyanka Kumari	2005	23

Links

Chess-results

Related news:

	National Women's Championship: Bhakti Kulkarni clinches title in dramatic finale @ 26/11/2018 by Aditya Pai (en)
	National Women's Championship: Mary defeats Bhakti to take over the tournament lead @ 24/11/2018 by Aditya Pai (en)
	National Women's Championship: Bhakti, Mary and Mahalakshmi share tournament lead @ 22/11/2018 by Aditya Pai (en)