Bhakti Kulkarni is the National Women's Champion 2019

by Satanick Mukhuty - 26/07/2019

Bhakti has done it! She has won the 46th edition of National Women's Championship 2019 with one round to spare. This is her second National title in a row! She dominated the field with a stupendous score of 9.5/10, achieving a rating performance of 2620 and gaining 42 Elo points in the process! In the tenth round she was up against Priyanka K of Tamil Nadu with the Black pieces. The game started off with a fianchetto Ruy Lopez which Bhakti masterfully steered into an opposite coloured bishop ending but as the title of this article suggests, ending of opposite coloured bishops is by no means synonymous to draw! In other boards, Vantika Agrawal and Divya Deshmukh won their respective games against Mary Ann Gomes and Michelle Catherina; while top seed Soumya Swaminathan and legendary IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman were handed shock defeats by Bala Kannamma P and Mrudul Dehankar respectively.

Not all opposite coloured bishop endings are drawn!

Everything has worked out like a dream for Bhakti in this tournament. Even the opposite coloured bishop ending she reached today was winning for her! | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Going into the tenth round of the event Bhakti kept up her rampageous performance to outplay Priyanka K in a sublime positional style. It was the fianchetto variation of the Ruy Lopez where the latter with the white pieces weakened her central dark squares early on in the game. Bhakti soon found the opportunity to trade off one of her knights against her opponent's important dark-squared bishop and not long after an opposite coloured bishop ending was reached. Time to see the highlights.

Priyanka K - Bhakti Kulkarni, Round 10

Position after 13.d5: White commits her pawns to the light squares in the center. In such kind of positions it is very important to keep a close watch on the consequently weakened dark squares.

Position after 14...Nc4: Black would certainly want to have the e3 bishop off the board after which her bishop on g7 will rule along the h8-a1 diagonal unrivalled.

White played 15.Qc1 in response and this immediately allowed Nxe3. Perhaps forcing the exchange of g7 bishop with 15.Bd4 would have been better (Check annotations below).

Position after 16...b4: Now with White's dark-squared bishop off the board, Black seized more space on the queenside. Next step was to go c6, breaking open the c-file.

Position after 23...Ne5: It was time to get some of the pieces off the board. 24.Nxe5 Rxe5 was played.

More pieces were traded off after 26.Nd5 with 26...Bxd5 27.exd5 Qg5 28.Rxe5 Qxe5

Position after 30...Qg5: All of Black's pieces are superior as compared to their counterparts. Now all that Black has to do is play on the dark squares and create more weaknesses on the kingside

Position after 45.Bxe2: All heavy pieces were off the board, What is your assessment of this opposite coloured bishop ending? Can you find a plan ahead for Black?

Position after 49...Kb2: What happened in the game was picturesque. Black brought her king straight away to b2 and now White was doomed to passivity. Notice, White's bishop is simply of the wrong colour here!

Position after 57...Ka3: A passer was created on the queenside and now it was time to take the king over to the kingside.

Position after 66...Kg2: Now the h3 pawn too will be picked. White resigned the game after three more moves from here.

A clinical performance by the National Champion. Speaking to ChessBase India an elated Bhakti said, "I am extremely happy not just because of winning the title back to back, but mainly because of my game quality! Last year I had a bit of luck in tie breaks I can say. But this year it was completely different scenario.. And funnily Yesterday I was talking to my good friend WGM Meenakshi that endings of opposite bishops are very beautiful in chess! And I am So glad that I could win the National title by winning in the opposite bishop ending". Playing with a rating performance of 2620 and gaining 42 Elo points, Bhakti's live rating is now 2430 which makes her India's no.3 as well.

Winning two back to back events and performing at an Elo of 2620 is not at all easy. Bhakti will also win Rs.4,00,000 for her efforts. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Vantika Agrawal had a good event overall. She defeated Mary Ann Gomes today with the White pieces and has even made a WGM norm | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Divya Deshmukh beat Michelle Catherina playing her pet Trompowsky attack with the White pieces | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Soumya Swaminathan suffered a shock defeat against Bala Kannamma P today. She has had a forgettable event. Starting as the top seed, she has now slipped to the 19th place | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Bala Kannamma P is paired up against Harshita Guddanti in the last round. If she wins her game tomorrow she will be making a WIM norm | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Mrudul Dehankar has caused several upsets in the event, in the latest round it was IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman who became her casualty. Her performances earned her a WIM norm | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Things went very wrong for IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman in this event as she lost to quite a few lower rated opponents suffering from disappointing blind spots | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Pratyusha Bodda won her game against Varshini V today and is paired up against Bhakti in the last round. Bhakti has already won the tournament, do you think she will push for the victory in the last round as well? | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Results of round 10

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	14		Priyanka K	2217	TN	7	0 - 1	8½	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2388	AI	2
2	10	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	2243	DEL	7	1 - 0	6½	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2303	PSPB	6
3	3	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	2373	MAH	6½	1 - 0	6½	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	2226	TN	12
4	22	WIM	Varshini V	2087	TN	6½	0 - 1	6½	WIM	Pratyusha Bodda	2265	AP	8
5	9	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	2259	TN	6½	1 - 0	6½	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	2163	AI	18
6	4	IM	Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman	2357	AI	6	0 - 1	6½	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	2074	MAH	24
7	1	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2402	PSPB	6	0 - 1	6		Bala Kannamma P	2051	TN	27
8	5	WIM	Srija Seshadri	2306	TN	6	1 - 0	6	WCM	Sharma Isha	2188	KAR	16
9	13	IM	Mohota Nisha	2221	PSPB	6	1 - 0	6	WFM	Jain Nityata	2135	MP	20
10	19	WIM	Parnali S Dharia	2145	MAH	5½	0 - 1	6	WGM	Ramaswamy Aarthie	2020	AI	28
11	15	WGM	Swati Ghate	2192	LIC	5½	½ - ½	5½	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2054	LIC	26
12	17	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2168	MAH	5½	1 - 0	5½		Saranya Y	1959	TN	32
13	21	WIM	Thipsay Bagyashree Sathe	2093	MAH	5½	½ - ½	5½		Bakshi Rutuja	1958	MAH	33
14	38	WFM	Meghna C H	1903	RSPB	5½	0 - 1	5½	WIM	Harshita Guddanti	2078	AP	23
15	30		Potluri Saye Srreezza	1999	TEL	5	- - +	5½	WCM	Jyothsna L	1939	TN	35
16	44		Singh Neha	1809	BIH	5	1 - 0	5	WFM	Saranya J	2067	TN	25
17	58		Shriya R Revankar	1627	KAR	5	½ - ½	5		Meenal Gupta	2004	J&K	29
18	34	WFM	Sanskriti Goyal	1948	UP	5	1 - 0	5		Sheena E.	1763	KER	47
19	36		Nandhini Saripalli	1933	GOA	5	1 - 0	5		Shah Vishwa	1734	MAH	49
20	56	WCM	Chinnam Vyshnavi	1664	AP	5	0 - 1	5		Toshali V	1920	AP	37

Standings after Round 10

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	2	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	IND	2388	AI	9,5	0,0	59,0	64,0	60,00	9	2,08
2	10	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	IND	2243	DEL	8,0	0,0	63,0	68,0	52,50	7	2,37
3	9	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	IND	2259	TN	7,5	0,0	61,5	66,5	45,75	7	0,53
4	3	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	IND	2373	MAH	7,5	0,0	59,0	63,5	44,00	6	-0,51
5	8	WIM	Pratyusha Bodda	IND	2265	AP	7,5	0,0	55,0	59,5	43,00	7	-0,27
6	24	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	IND	2074	MAH	7,5	0,0	55,0	59,0	42,50	6	2,78
7	14		Priyanka K	IND	2217	TN	7,0	0,0	58,0	62,5	40,25	6	-0,61
8	5	WIM	Srija Seshadri	IND	2306	TN	7,0	0,0	55,0	59,5	39,50	6	-1,25
9	27		Bala Kannamma P	IND	2051	TN	7,0	0,0	54,5	58,5	37,50	6	2,05
10	28	WGM	Ramaswamy Aarthie	IND	2020	AI	7,0	0,0	53,5	57,5	38,75	5	2,76
11	13	IM	Mohota Nisha	IND	2221	PSPB	7,0	0,0	53,0	57,0	38,25	4	-0,78
12	18	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	IND	2163	AI	6,5	0,0	63,0	67,5	40,25	5	1,11
13	12	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	IND	2226	TN	6,5	0,0	60,0	65,0	39,25	5	-0,27
14	6	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	IND	2303	PSPB	6,5	0,0	55,0	60,0	37,25	5	-1,46
15	23	WIM	Harshita Guddanti	IND	2078	AP	6,5	0,0	54,5	59,0	36,00	5	1,37
16	22	WIM	Varshini V	IND	2087	TN	6,5	0,0	54,5	59,0	35,50	5	-0,10
17	35	WCM	Jyothsna L	IND	1939	TN	6,5	0,0	52,5	56,0	35,50	5	0,48
18	17	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	IND	2168	MAH	6,5	0,0	48,0	52,0	32,75	6	-1,76
19	1	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	IND	2402	PSPB	6,0	0,0	59,5	64,5	35,00	5	-2,33
20	4	IM	Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman	IND	2357	AI	6,0	0,0	58,0	63,0	35,75	5	-2,72

The final round of the event begins tomorrow at 9 a.m IST, follow live here.

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