National Women's 2019 Round 7: A day of mistakes and missed chances

by Satanick Mukhuty - 24/07/2019

The seventh round of the 46th National Women's Championship 2019 was a day of mistakes and missed chances. On board-1 it was the highly anticipated Bhakti Kulkarni versus Soumya Swaminathan matchup but the encounter simply failed to live up to the expectation as the top-seed of the event couldn't quite find her form against the defending champion. Vantika Agrawal and Nandhidhaa P V drew their respective games against Pratyusha Bodda and Michelle Catherina; while Swati Ghate, who had made an impressive recovery after losing her first round game, faltered and lost to Meenakshi Subbaraman in a winning position. However, the biggest shocker came from Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman versus Potluri Saye Srreezza, where the former made a crude mistake on move 71 to lose in a dead drawn queen-pawn ending.

Bhakti has an easy outing against Soumya!

The Bhakti versus Soumya match-up didn't quite spark the fires as the latter couldn't put her best form on show | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

The seventh round of the 46th National Women's Championship 2019 saw the most anticipated encounter of the event as defending champion Bhakti Kulkarni was pitted against the top-seed Soumya Swaminathan. Unfortunately, the match-up didn't live up to its expectation. Soumya adopted the Grunfeld defense with the black pieces and ended up in a worse position as early as move 12 after making a premature pawn push on the flank, and on the 38th move she suffered an inexplicable brain fade and blundered away a whole piece. The game was resigned immediately thereafter.

Bhakti Kulkarni - Soumya Swaminathan, Round 7

Position after 11...e6: A standard Grunfeld exchange position where White has the central pawn duo which Black hopes to put pressure on from the flanks.

White went 12.0-0 in the above position and now a move like 12...Nc6 would have been fine but Black lashed out with 12...b5?! instead which didn't look like the most logical of moves.

12...b5 simply invites Nb3-c5 and leads to the weakening of the queenside.

The game continued 13.Nb3 Qa4 14.Bd3 Nc6 15.Qe2 and White challenged the b5 pawn straightaway. Well, Black couldn't support it with a6 because that would make the bishop on c8 look ridiculous, that's one more issue with the untimely b5 push.

Position after 15.Qe2: The b5 pawn starts to feel a tad uncomfortable.

Next, after 15...Rb8 16.e5 Ne7 17.Rfb1 Black pushed 17...b4, there wasn't a better option, 17...a6 18.Nc5, for instance, would be a positional disaster.

Position after 17...b4: This b-pawn has strayed too far up the board!

18.Nc5 Qc6 19.a3 a5 20.axb4 axb4 followed and it became apparent that sooner or later the isolated pawn on b4 would fall. Black stood worse and without counterplay.

Position after 20...axb4: Black badly needs to bring some of the pieces to play.

21.Be4 Qc7 22.Qc4 Bd7 23.Rxb4 happened next and White finally picked up the b4 pawn. Black was simply down a pawn now but still it wasn't all game over until move 38 when the catastrophe struck.

White has just played 38.Qf3 pinning the f6 bishop, now moves like Nd7, Bg5 looks threatening ... Black is worse but what should be her best chance at defending the position?

38...Nd5 would have been a logical try but Black lost it completely here and went 38...Ke7 - a poor tactical oversight. Can you guess what happened next?

What did Black missed when she played 38...Nd5?

White simply took 39.Qxf6+ and Black resigned. After 39...Kxf6 40.Nd7+ White wins back the queen and ends up with an extra bishop. A bad day for Soumya!

Swati's missed chance

Another disappointment of the day came from Meenakshi Subbaraman versus Swati Ghate where the latter with the black pieces was pushing throughout the game but made unfortunate errors in the end to first miss her chance at winning and then lose the full point | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Meenakshi Subbaraman - Swati Ghate, Round 7

White has played 31.Re2, the first mistake of the game. Can you find a winning plan for Black?

White played 31.Re2 perhaps with the aim of winning the b2 pawn but what she missed was 31...Qc7! after which the pawn on b2 can't be touched because of the possible discovery on d8-a5. Now something like 32.Re3 Qf7 followed by Qa2 is completely winning for Black but Swati simply overlooked these and played 31...e3?

31...e3: The second mistake of the game. This blows away Black's winning advantage.

The game went 32. Rbxb2 Rxb2 33. Rxb2 and now came the final and decisive blunder of the encounter 33...Qf4? - instead, simply 33...exf2+ 34.Rxf2 would have left even chances.

Quiz for you - It is White to play and win!

Meenakshi was spot on this time and played 34. Qd8+ and after 34...Kh7 came 35. Nd7 threatening Nf8+ followed by fatal discovery. Black simply had to resign after 35...Qc7 36.Nf8+

Another shocking mistake!

The biggest shocker of the day was pulled off by Potluri Saye Srreezza, a 1900 rated player from Telangana, who defeated IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman! | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman - Potluri Saye Srreezza, Round 7

It was a perfectly equal queen-pawn ending when White made the abysmal 71.Qg5+ ... So, what's the winning move for Black?

Potluri played 71...Qg6+ and White immediately resigned. The point is as simple as it can be. This forces exchange of queens after which the g3 pawn simply promotes!

WGM Mary Ann Gomes beat WIM Priyanka Nutakki to take her score to 5.0/7. Will she be able to catch up with the leaders? | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

WIM Michelle Catherina drew WIM Nandhidhaa P V and is on fourth place with 5.5/7, while Nandhidhaa is on third with same points | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

WIM Vantika Agrawal drew WIM Pratyusha Bodda to slip to the second place with 6.0/7 points | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Bhakti Kulkarni has finally taken the sole lead with 6.5/7 points, will she be able to defend her title? | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Results of Round 7

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	2	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2388	AI	5½	1 - 0	5	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	2402	PSPB	1
2	8	WIM	Pratyusha Bodda	2265	AP	5	½ - ½	5½	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	2243	DEL	10
3	12	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	2226	TN	5	½ - ½	5	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	2259	TN	9
4	18	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	2163	AI	4½	1 - 0	5	WGM	Swati Ghate	2192	LIC	15
5	23	WIM	Harshita Guddanti	2078	AP	4½	½ - ½	4½	WIM	Srija Seshadri	2306	TN	5
6	6	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2303	PSPB	4	1 - 0	4½	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	2293	AP	7
7	25	WFM	Saranya J	2067	TN	4	0 - 1	4	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	2373	MAH	3
8	4	IM	Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman	2357	AI	4	0 - 1	4		Potluri Saye Srreezza	1999	TEL	30
9	26	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2054	LIC	4	1 - 0	4	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	2227	RSPB	11
10	28	WGM	Ramaswamy Aarthie	2020	AI	4	½ - ½	4	IM	Mohota Nisha	2221	PSPB	13
11	14		Priyanka K	2217	TN	4	1 - 0	4	WFM	Meghna C H	1903	RSPB	38
12	16	WCM	Sharma Isha	2188	KAR	4	½ - ½	4		Bakshi Rutuja	1958	MAH	33
13	27		Bala Kannamma P	2051	TN	4	1 - 0	4	WIM	Parnali S Dharia	2145	MAH	19
14	32		Saranya Y	1959	TN	4	0 - 1	4	WFM	Jain Nityata	2135	MP	20
15	53		Nanditha V	1687	TEL	4	0 - 1	4	WIM	Thipsay Bagyashree Sathe	2093	MAH	21
16	24	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	2074	MAH	4	1 - 0	4		Rindhiya V	1573	TN	66
17	49		Shah Vishwa	1734	MAH	3½	0 - 1	3½	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2168	MAH	17
18	22	WIM	Varshini V	2087	TN	3½	1 - 0	3½		Sunyuktha C M N	1815	TN	43
19	29		Meenal Gupta	2004	J&K	3½	½ - ½	3½		Pandey Srishti	1882	MAH	40
20	67	WFM	Bindu Saritha K.	1538	LIC	3½	0 - 1	3½	WFM	Sanskriti Goyal	1948	UP	34

Standings after round 7

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w-we
1	2	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	IND	2388	AI	6,5	0,0	30,0	32,5	29,50	6	1,26
2	10	WIM	Vantika Agrawal	IND	2243	DEL	6,0	0,0	30,5	33,0	27,00	5	1,85
3	9	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	IND	2259	TN	5,5	0,0	28,0	31,0	22,25	5	0,23
4	12	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	IND	2226	TN	5,5	0,0	27,0	30,0	23,00	4	0,09
5	8	WIM	Pratyusha Bodda	IND	2265	AP	5,5	0,0	27,0	29,5	22,50	5	-0,17
6	18	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	IND	2163	AI	5,5	0,0	27,0	29,5	22,50	4	1,06
7	1	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	IND	2402	PSPB	5,0	0,0	30,0	33,0	21,50	4	-0,69
8	3	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	IND	2373	MAH	5,0	0,0	29,5	32,5	20,75	4	-0,66
9	30		Potluri Saye Srreezza	IND	1999	TEL	5,0	0,0	27,0	28,5	16,50	5	1,19
10	20	WFM	Jain Nityata	IND	2135	MP	5,0	0,0	26,5	30,0	19,50	5	0,16
11	21	WIM	Thipsay Bagyashree Sathe	IND	2093	MAH	5,0	0,0	26,5	29,5	17,50	5	0,13
12	26	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	IND	2054	LIC	5,0	0,0	26,0	29,0	19,25	4	1,42
13	5	WIM	Srija Seshadri	IND	2306	TN	5,0	0,0	25,5	28,5	19,75	4	-0,95
14	27		Bala Kannamma P	IND	2051	TN	5,0	0,0	25,5	27,5	17,00	4	1,22
15	23	WIM	Harshita Guddanti	IND	2078	AP	5,0	0,0	25,0	28,0	19,00	4	1,20
16	14		Priyanka K	IND	2217	TN	5,0	0,0	24,5	27,5	19,25	4	-1,10
17	6	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	IND	2303	PSPB	5,0	0,0	24,5	27,0	18,75	4	-0,96
18	24	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	IND	2074	MAH	5,0	0,0	24,5	27,0	17,50	4	0,80
19	15	WGM	Swati Ghate	IND	2192	LIC	5,0	0,0	24,0	26,0	17,00	5	-0,75
20	28	WGM	Ramaswamy Aarthie	IND	2020	AI	4,5	0,0	27,0	30,0	18,00	3	1,54

The live games of 8th round begin at 10 a.m. on 24th of July. You can follow them LIVE here.

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