National Women's Championship: Mary defeats Bhakti to take over the tournament lead

by Aditya Pai - 24/11/2018

Leaders changed once again in the ninth round of the Women's National Championship. At the conclusion of the antepenultimate round, Air India's Bhakti Kulkarni was toppled off her top spot by Mary Ann Gomes of PSPB in the premier matchup of the round. Mahalakshmi M was another player to join into the tournament lead as she defeated Michelle Catherina. After her loss, Bhakti has slipped down to the third spot behind Gomes and Mahalakshmi while Michelle shares the fourth place with six others. Round 9 report.

Leaders change once again

Change is the only permanent they say. At the close of another round, another leader was toppled at the Women's National Championship in Jaipur, Rajasthan. On the premier board in the ninth round, Mary Ann Gomes (2286) of PSPB took down the overnight leader Bhakti Kulkarni to take over the tournament lead. Mahalakshmi M (2198), who was also a half point behind Kulkarni going into the round, seized the moment to join Gomes on the top spot as she beat WIM Michelle Catherina P (2182) of Tamil Nadu. Both Gomes and Mahalakshmi have scored 7.5 points out of their nine games.

After her loss, Bhakti has slipped down to the second spot with a score of 7.0/9. There is a seven-way tie for the third place that includes Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman (2365), Priyanka Kumari (2005), Michelle Catherina P, Arpita Mukherjee (2090), Saranya J (2049), Nandhidhaa PV (2240) and Meenakshi Subbaraman (2191).

In the top game of the round, Mary was on the front foot against Bhakti Kulkarni in a Reti Opening. However, Kulkarni wasn't really worse. She had managed to keep balanced well until the 28th move.

Position after 28.Rxa4

White had just captured a pawn on a4 here. Computers thought black was best advised to cover c6 with 28...Rf6 and then she was free to take on c5 at will. Bhakti, however, chose to capture immediately. And after 28...Qxc5 29.Rc4 Qa5 30.Rxc6, a catastrophe occurred -- Bhakti took on f5 with the bishop.

Position after 31.Re6

After 30...Bxf5, white exploited the pin on the f5 bishop with 31.Re6! The threat is simple -- put the rook on e5 and collect the f5 bishop. Bhakti tried to defend with 31...Rb5 only to realise that white can play 32.Re5 anyway. If black takes on e5 with 32...Rxe5, the f5 bishop is pinned in another way after 33.fxe5. Bhakti went 33...Bxe4 here but the game did not last long after 34.Rxb5.

Mary Ann Gomes (right) and Bhakti Kulkarni during the fourth round of the 2017 Women's National Premier. Even back then, they had discussed the Reti where Mary had the whites. However, Bhakti was the victor in that encounter. | Photo: Ankit Dalal

On board 2, Mahalakshmi M got the better of Michelle Catherina, who shared the second place with the former, going into round 9. This was another Reti Opening where white had a decent pull on the position in the middle game. But the deciding moment came on the 27th move when Michelle let a lot of material slip away with her 27...Bd6.

Position after 27...Bd6

White simply took on c4 here with 28.Bxc4. Of course, black cannot recapture on c4 with the rook and if she had recaptured with the pawn (28...dxc4), white had 29.d5, exploiting the pin along the 'e' file. Michelle decided to take 28...Bxf4 instead, but once again, after 29.Bxd5 Rd6 30.Bxe6, black had lost material.

Mahalakshmi M joined Mary Ann Gomes in the top spot after her win over Michelle Catherina in round 9

Bommini Mounika Akshaya (1859) had had a phenomenal run in the tournament until the 8th round. She had played six players rated more than 200 points above her and had managed to remain unbeaten. In round 9, however, her unbeaten run was brought to a halt by Nandhidaa PV (2240) who convincingly defeated the Gunthur girl from the black side of a London System.

Nandhidhaa PV scored a smooth win over Bommini Mounika Akshaya in round 9 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

With the lead changing hands every now and then, the tournament has been quite exciting thus far. As it stands, the tournament is wide open and it's hard to predict any favourites. It will be interesting to see how the final two rounds unfold.

Standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	IND	2286	PSPB	7,5	0,5	49,0	52,5
2	11	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	IND	2198	RSPB	7,5	0,5	46,5	51,0
3	4	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	IND	2256	AI	7,0	0,0	50,0	54,0
4	1	IM	Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman	IND	2365	AI	6,5	0,0	49,5	54,0
5	23		Priyanka Kumari	IND	2005	JHA	6,5	0,0	49,0	53,0
6	13	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	IND	2182	TN	6,5	0,0	45,5	49,5
7	19	WFM	Arpita Mukherjee	IND	2090	WB	6,5	0,0	43,5	48,0
8	22	WFM	Saranya J	IND	2049	TN	6,5	0,0	43,5	47,0
9	6	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	IND	2240	TN	6,5	0,0	43,0	46,5
10	12	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	IND	2191	AI	6,5	0,0	42,5	47,0

Results of round 9

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2286	6½	1 - 0	7	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2256	4
2	11	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	2198	6½	1 - 0	6½	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	2182	13
3	19	WFM	Arpita Mukherjee	2090	6	½ - ½	6		Priyanka Kumari	2005	23
4	39	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	1859	6	0 - 1	5½	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	2240	6
5	1	IM	Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman	2365	5½	1 - 0	5½		Harini S.	1998	26
6	5	WGM	Swati Ghate	2256	5½	0 - 1	5½	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	2191	12
7	16		Nimmy A.G.	2136	5½	½ - ½	5½	WIM	Srija Seshadri	2224	8
8	27	WGM	Ramaswamy Aarthie	1994	5½	0 - 1	5½	WFM	Saranya J	2049	22
9	3	IM	Mohota Nisha	2276	5	1 - 0	5		Ghosh Samriddhaa	1870	36
10	29	WIM	Chandreyee Hajra	1963	5	0 - 1	5	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2237	7

Round 10 pairings

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

Links

Chess-results

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	National Women's Championship: Bhakti Kulkarni clinches title in dramatic finale @ 26/11/2018 by Aditya Pai (en)
	National Women's Championship: Mary Ann Gomes inches closer to the title beating Meenakshi Subbaraman @ 25/11/2018 by Aditya Pai (en)
	National Women's Championship: Bhakti, Mary and Mahalakshmi share tournament lead @ 22/11/2018 by Aditya Pai (en)