Tata Steel Women Rapid R1-3: Vantika Agrawal in a three-way lead
IM Vantika Agrawal made a great start at Tata Steel Chess India Women Rapid 2024. She started with a win over GM Valentina Gunina. Then she drew with GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI) and GM Nana Dzagnidze (GEO) respectively. In both games, Vantika had great chances to win but they ended in draws. GM Aleksandra Goryachkina and GM Kateryna Lagno are at 2/3 each, along with Vantika. Four players including three Indians - Dzagnidze, GM Koneru Humpy, GM Harika Dronavalli and the defending champion - IM Divya Deshmukh are at 1.5/3 each. All three of them drew all their games on the first day. Divya had a good chance against Humpy in the third round. However, she could not capitalize on it. Round 4 starts tomorrow at 2 p.m. IST. Photo: Shahid Ahmed
A great day for Vantika
The first day of Women's event at Tata Steel India Rapid had relatively less decisive games. However, the number could have certainly been much more. Compared the men, the women had much closer start as ten women are at only three different scores of groups.
Round 1: Vantika - Gunina: 1-0
IM Vantika Agrawal (2392) faced GM Valentina Gunina (2425) for the first time in a rated game. After a series of mistakes in the rook endgame, Gunina finally reached a point of no return.
Try to find out why 43...Rd4?? is a game losing blunder. Vantika did not let go of this opportunity and won the game.
Round 2: Kosteniuk - Vantika: 0.5-0.5
IM Vantika Agrawal faced GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI, 2508) only twice at Grand Swiss in 2021 and 2023. She lost the first one and drew the second. This time she had a great opportunity to beat the twelfth Women's World Champion.
Vantika made a nice exchange sacrifice to get two pawns for it, which is mathematically just an exchange of rook for a minor piece and two pans. 27...Rxd2 28.Rxd2 Qxf4+ 29.Qxf4 Rxf4 30.Re1?? Ba5 Black not recovered material but arrived at a winning rook and knight endgame. 31.Ree2 Bxd2 32.Rxd2 Re4 33.e6 g5 34.Kg2 Kg7 35.Rf2 Rxd4? Black should have kept the knight on the board to keep things in her control, exchanging allowed White to get back in the game and she escaped with a draw.
Humpy - Divya, Round 3
20...a3 21.Nc4/d1 Bb5 is what Black needed to play. Instead, 20...Ra7 21.Bc4 Rda8 22.Nd3 meandered into a draw.
Vantika - Dzagnidze
IM Vantika Agrawal (2314) had one solitary opportunity against GM Nana Dzagnidze (GEO, 2427) when she played 30...Ra5. Find out what she missed.
Format
There will be two tournaments: a men's and a women's event. The tournaments will be played in two formats - Rapid and Blitz. For the first time, both Men's and Women's event will take place simultaneously. Three rounds of Rapid games will be played on the first three days, followed by nine rounds of Blitz per day on the remaining two days of each event. The time control is 25 minutes for the entire game with an increment of 10 seconds from move no.1. For Blitz, the time control is 3 minutes with an increment of 2 seconds from move no.1.
Venue
Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium in Kolkata, West Bengal. The tournament is open to spectators. Tickets will not be sold; passes will be available at the venue on first-come-first-serve basis on the days of the tournament.
Replay Round 1-3 games
Round 1-3 results
Standings after Round 3
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | GM | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | FID | 2472 | 2 | 0 | 2,50 | 1 | 0 | |
| 5 | GM | Lagno, Kateryna | RUS | 2436 | 2 | 0 | 2,50 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 3 | 3 | IM | Vantika, Agrawal | IND | 2314 | 2 | 0 | 2,25 | 1 | 0 | |
| 4 | 1 | GM | Dzagnidze, Nana | GEO | 2427 | 1,5 | 0 | 2,75 | 0 | 0 | |
| 5 | 6 | GM | Koneru, Humpy | IND | 2451 | 1,5 | 0 | 2,50 | 0 | 0 | |
| 10 | GM | Dronavalli, Harika | IND | 2416 | 1,5 | 0 | 2,50 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 7 | 7 | IM | Divya, Deshmukh | IND | 2401 | 1,5 | 0 | 2,25 | 0 | 0 | |
| 8 | 9 | GM | Kosteniuk, Alexandra | SUI | 2508 | 1 | 0 | 1,50 | 0 | 0 | |
| 9 | 4 | GM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | IND | 2359 | 1 | 0 | 1,25 | 0 | 0 | |
| 10 | 8 | GM | Gunina, Valentina | FID | 2384 | 1 | 0 | 1,00 | 1 | 0 |
Round 4 pairings
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | White | Result | Black | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | 2416 | GM | Dronavalli, Harika | IM | Divya, Deshmukh | 2401 | 7 | ||||
| 2 | 8 | 2384 | GM | Gunina, Valentina | GM | Koneru, Humpy | 2451 | 6 | ||||
| 3 | 9 | 2508 | GM | Kosteniuk, Alexandra | GM | Lagno, Kateryna | 2436 | 5 | ||||
| 4 | 1 | 2427 | GM | Dzagnidze, Nana | GM | Vaishali, Rameshbabu | 2359 | 4 | ||||
| 5 | 2 | 2472 | GM | Goryachkina, Aleksandra | IM | Vantika, Agrawal | 2314 | 3 |
Schedule
Everyday round starts at 2 p.m. IST. The Rapid event will take place from 13th to 15th November, followed by the Blitz event on 16th and 17th November.
Prize
The total prize fund remains the same as the previous two editions - US$ 41500. The top three prizes in the Rapid are - $10000, $6000 and $3000. For Blitz they are - $7500, $4000 and $2500. Most importantly, the prizes remain equal in both Open and Womens events.
Links
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कार्लसन नें जीता टाटा स्टील इंडिया रैपिड ब्लिट्ज़ का दोहरा खिताब
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