Western Asian R05+06: Vantika Agrawal makes a strong comeback, wrests sole lead

by Satanick Mukhuty - 09/09/2019

After losing to Sakshi Chitlange in round four, Vantika Agrawal made a strong comeback to win two games in a row and emerge as the sole leader in the under-20 girls category of the ongoing Western Asian Youth and Junior Championship 2019. In under-20 open group playing on board one the leaders - Abdisalimov Abdimalik and Rajdeep Sarkar - agreed to a quick draw to maintain their positions on the top. Divya Deshmukh also held Vardaan Nagpal to a draw, while Pranav Anand stunned Rahul Srivatshav P in a topsy-turvy encounter. In under-18 open, Sri Lankan talent Thilakarathne GMH registered his fourth consecutive victory to wrest sole lead, while in the girls section of the same age category Mrudul Dehankar furthered her unbeaten streak to stay half a point ahead of the field.

Vantika Agrawal steals the show with a superb intermezzo!

Vantika Agrawal (right) first beat Vishwa Shah in round five and finally in the sixth round she wrested the lead from Uzbekistan's Bakhora Abdusattorova (left) | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

It was an open Catalan game against the Uzbekistani WIM and Vantika, after a enjoying a superior position throughout the encounter, found a clever way to finish things off tactically.

Vantika Agrawal - Bakhora Abdusattorova, Round 6

It was in this position where the moment of truth arrived... White played 38.Nxe5 here, now how do you think should Black recapture on e5?

Well, 38...Rxe5 would have been the sound option. Although White gets good initiative after 39.Rd8+ Kg7 40.Rc8 but Black is certainly not lost. In the game 38...Qxe5 was played, at first glance this doesn't seem to make much difference at all, if anything it only looks as though Black can face 39.Rd8+ better now with 39...Re8. But in chess, as they say, appearances often lie.

Can you find the move that Vantika found in this position to seize a decisive initiative?

As already mentioned, playing 39.Rd8+ immediately here doesn't gain all that much. The best move is 39.Rd5! - a subtle zwischenzug.

The point is to deflect the black queen before going Rd8+!

Now something like 39...Qc7 runs into 40.Qd4 after which Rd8 is a deadly threat. In view of this Black played 39...Qc3 here keeping an eye on the d4 square. But now came 40.Rd8+ Kg7 41.Rc8 Qe5 42.Qd8 and the game was over only in three moves from here.

Sakshi Chitlange (right) lost her fifth round game against Bakhora Abdusattorova but in the next round managed to bounce back by beating Lakshmi C (left) | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Standings after round 6 in under-20 girls

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	1	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	w	IND	2304	5,0	0,0	5	18,0	19,5	15,00	0,03
2	5	WIM	Abdusattorova Bakhora	w	UZB	2109	4,5	1,0	4	20,5	23,5	16,50	0,46
3	4	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	w	IND	2159	4,5	0,0	4	20,5	23,5	17,00	0,74
4	13		Shah Vishwa	w	IND	1760	4,0	0,0	3	19,0	21,0	12,00	2,30
5	2	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	w	IND	2232	4,0	0,0	3	17,5	19,5	11,25	-1,19
6	9		Bakshi Rutuja	w	IND	2002	4,0	0,0	3	17,5	19,0	10,50	1,01
7	6	WFM	Savitha Shri B	w	IND	2076	3,5	0,0	3	14,5	15,5	7,50	-1,66
8	17		Senthamizh Yazhini S	w	IND	1626	3,0	0,0	3	17,5	19,0	7,00	1,43
9	14	WFM	Potluri Supreetha	w	IND	1745	3,0	0,0	3	16,5	18,0	7,00	1,28
10	8	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	w	IND	2055	3,0	0,0	2	17,5	19,5	7,75	-0,95

Pranav Anand gets the better of Rahul Srivatshava

13-year-old Pranav Anand defeated Rahul Srivatshava in a topsy-turvy game where fortune changed hands more than once | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Divya Deshmukh played solidly to hold IM Vardaan Nagpal to draw | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Standings in under-20 open after round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	7	FM	Rajdeep Sarkar		IND	2364	5,0	0,5	4	21,5	23,0	18,25	1,26
2	2	FM	Abdisalimov Abdimalik		UZB	2409	5,0	0,5	4	19,0	21,5	17,50	0,73
3	3		Sammed Jaykumar Shete		IND	2395	4,5	0,0	4	20,0	23,0	15,75	0,29
4	9	FM	Pranav Anand		IND	2361	4,5	0,0	4	17,5	20,0	14,00	0,45
5	10	IM	Vardaan Nagpal		IND	2346	4,5	0,0	3	21,5	23,5	16,50	0,80
6	8	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	w	IND	2362	4,5	0,0	3	17,5	20,0	14,50	-0,02
7	11		Raahul V S		IND	2278	4,0	0,0	4	16,5	17,0	8,50	-0,21
8	6		Sankalp Gupta		IND	2376	4,0	0,0	4	15,0	17,0	10,00	-0,89
9	5	IM	Mendonca Leon Luke		IND	2385	4,0	0,0	3	17,0	19,0	10,75	-0,52
10	19	FM	Harshal Shahi		IND	2114	3,5	0,0	3	20,0	21,0	9,75	1,30

Mrudul Dehankar keeps up her stellar run!

Mrudul Dehankar drew her fifth round game against Jyothsna L. but in the next round resumed her winning spree by defeating Sanskriti Goyal | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Standings in under-18 girls after round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	1	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	w	IND	2198	5,5	0,0	5	20,0	22,5	20,25	0,81
2	2		Priyanka K	w	IND	2169	5,0	0,0	5	18,5	20,0	14,50	0,16
3	4	WCM	Jyothsna L	w	IND	1989	4,5	0,0	3	19,0	22,0	16,00	0,72
4	6		Pandey Srishti	w	IND	1928	3,5	0,0	3	19,5	20,5	8,25	0,12
5	8		Toshali V	w	IND	1823	3,5	0,0	3	18,5	19,5	7,25	0,57
6	3	WFM	Sanskriti Goyal	w	IND	2030	3,5	0,0	3	18,0	20,0	9,75	-0,59
7	7		Ghosh Samriddhaa	w	IND	1863	3,5	0,0	3	18,0	19,5	8,25	0,00
8	5		Srimathi R	w	IND	1972	3,5	0,0	2	15,0	17,0	8,75	-0,80
9	9	WCM	Jayaweera Sayuni Gihansa	w	SRI	1821	3,5	0,0	2	14,5	15,5	6,75	-0,57
10	13		Shriya R Revankar	w	IND	1751	3,0	0,0	2	16,5	18,0	8,00	0,63

Thilakarathne defeats Mohamed Anees to register fourth consecutive win!

After losing to Arjun Gupta in the second round, Sri Lanka's Thilakarathne GMH has made a strong comeback winning four games in a row, the last victory being against Mohamed Anees M | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Srijit Paul (left) defeated Vatsal Singhania in round five but was held to draw by Ajay Karthikeyan (right) in the sixth round | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Standings after round 6 in under-18 open

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	1	FM	Thilakarathne G M H	U18		SRI	2397	5,0	0,0	5	18,5	21,5	18,00	-0,33
2	2		Srijit Paul	U18		IND	2310	4,5	0,0	4	20,0	23,0	16,25	-0,27
3	14		Mohamed Anees M	U16		IND	2038	4,5	0,0	4	19,5	22,0	15,00	1,52
4	9	FM	Vatsal Singhania	U18		IND	2159	4,5	0,0	4	18,0	20,5	14,25	0,78
5	12		Harisurya Bharadwaj Gundepudi	U18		IND	2043	4,5	0,0	4	14,0	16,0	12,25	-0,18
6	5	FM	Ajay Karthikeyan	U16		IND	2206	4,5	0,0	3	17,5	19,0	13,75	0,26
7	10		Soham Kamotra	U16		IND	2139	4,0	0,0	3	17,5	19,5	11,50	-0,20
8	6	FM	Abdilkhair Abilmansur	U16		KAZ	2189	4,0	0,0	3	17,0	19,5	11,75	-0,41
9	4	FM	Aaryan Varshney	U18		IND	2268	4,0	0,0	3	14,5	16,5	11,00	-1,32
10	7	WIM	Harshita Guddanti	U18	w	IND	2168	4,0	0,0	2	16,0	18,5	12,00	-0,88

Check detailed results of all categories here.

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