Arushi showcases her 'Never give up' mindset

by Shahid Ahmed - 02/11/2019

Arushi Kotwal showcased her fighting spirit as she completely turned things around from a loss position to a win. Rutumbara Bidhar missed a few opportunities and eventually held top seed in the girls section, Priyanka Nutakki to a draw. Koustav had a narrow escape against the reigning National Amateur champion Kartavya Anadkat. Delhi's own Arjun Gupta held Rajdeep to a draw and Saina Salonika lost to Vyshnavi Chinnam in round 3 of 49th National Junior open and 34th National Junior girls respectively. In round 2, Pushkar Dere held Anuj Shrivatri and Miracle Panda held Isha Sharma to a draw. We bring you photos, games and analysis from day 2 of National Juniors 2019. Photo: IA Jitendra Choudhary

Arushi Kotwal shows true grit

If you go by Arushi's position then she had absolutely unfavorable position by move no.15 in round 3 against WFM Aashna Makhija of Maharashtra. The Jammu-Kashmir girl had every right to resign her game, but she did not. Being a fighter and overcoming all odds to play the game, let alone play tournaments, Arushi waited for her opponent to make a mistake and mistake is what Aashna did.

The move 33.Rb8 came as a blessing for Arushi | Photo: Jitendra Choudhary

Aashna - Arushi, round 3

After 12.0-0-0 it is very much obvious that white has complete advantage in the position

Arushi made a mistake of 11...a6 which allowed Aashna to do 12.0-0-0. Little did she know that the advantage won't last till the end.

Aashna made the mistake of playing 33.Rb8 here

Despite having an absolutely comfortable winning position, Aashna backed her pieces to a corner, quite literally. Then came 33.Rb8 which sealed her fate and removed all plausible chances of winning. Arushi showed her strength and took the chance which her opponent presented to score a full point.

WFM Rutumbara Bidhar held WIM Priyanka Nutakki to a draw in round 3 | Photo: Jitendra Choudhary

In a game arising out of French Defence Classical variation where evaluation changed quite often, the Odisha girl Rutumbara missed a wonderful opportunity which would have caused serious trouble for the in-form girl from Andhra Pradesh, Priyanka Nutakki.

Rutumbara - Nutakki, round 3

Black just played 21...Na7. Find out why it is a mistake

The first candidate move that should come to mind is 22.Bxd7 because the e3-b6 diagonal is ripe for picking. Unfortunately Rutumbara missed and played the tame 22.Bd3 instead.

What is the winning continuation for white here?

After 31...Rc2, white forgot the golden rule of passed pawns must be pushed. Well technically g5 is still not a passed pawn yet, until it is pushed. White went with 32.gxf6 and after a few more missed opportunities, the game ended up in a draw.

All other top seeds in the girls section scored a comfortable win. Only WFM Saina Salonika of Odisha lost to WCM Vyshnavi Chinnam of Andhra Pradesh. In round 2, Miracle Panda of Odisha held WCM Isha Sharma of Karnataka to a draw.

Reigning National Amateur champion Kartavya Anadkat missed a golden opportunity | Photo: Jitendra Choudhary

IM Koustav Chatterjee of West Bengal had control for the majority of the game, however he let loose his reigns and Kartavya almost seized it.

Koustav - Kartavya, round 3

52.Qd2 was the perfect opportunity black needed. Can you find the best continuation for black?

Black has a menacing passed pawn at b2 which should be the deciding factor for the game, but it was not meant to be for Kartavya as he missed the best continuation for black here. He quickly lost the valuable b2 pawn pawn and then blundered a complete rook which eventually cost him the game.

Delhi State under-19 champion Arjun Gupta | Photo: Jitendra Choudhary

IM Rajdeep Sarkar opted for the Torre, London and Colle System with the black pieces and throughout neither side made any significant mistake which resulted in the game being end up in Queen and Knight vs Queen and Bishop draw after 58 moves.

Madhya Pradesh's latest IM Anuj Shrivatri was held to a draw in round 2 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Pushkar Dere of Maharashtra opted for Four Knight's game against Anuj and he managed to stay out of the trouble. The game eventually ended up in a draw in a rook endgame after white's 40th move.

Round 3 results in Open

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	IM	Koustav Chatterjee	2449	2	1 - 0	2		Anadkat Kartavya	2060	24
2	23		Barath Kalyan M	2069	2	0 - 1	2	IM	Mitrabha Guha	2443	2
3	26		Arjun Gupta	2041	2	½ - ½	2	IM	Rajdeep Sarkar	2362	4
4	5		Harshavardhan G B	2360	2	1 - 0	2		Pattnayak Nilsu	2030	30
5	7	FM	Nitish Belurkar	2325	2	1 - 0	2		Akshit Kumar J	2014	34
6	29		Mahindrakar Indrajeet	2034	2	0 - 1	2	IM	Srijit Paul	2317	8
7	9	FM	Srihari L R	2286	2	1 - 0	2		Sparsh Khandelwal	1946	40
8	31		Grahesh Y	2026	2	½ - ½	2		Saurabh Anand	2278	10
9	11	FM	Wagh Suyog	2273	2	1 - 0	2		Aditya Varun Gampa	1908	44
10	43		Chaitanya Sairam Mogili	1921	2	½ - ½	2		Subhayan Kundu	2269	12
11	13	FM	Jeet Jain	2264	2	1 - 0	2		Aaditya Dhingra	1896	46
12	47		Sharan Rao	1895	2	½ - ½	2		Sibi Visal R	2238	14
13	15	FM	Aaryan Varshney	2236	2	1 - 0	2		Kavya Aggarwal	1711	84
14	48		Rakshith Srinivasan	1884	2	½ - ½	2		Soham Kamotra	2189	16
15	71		Sudarshan Bhat	1764	2	0 - 1	2		Dhananjay S	2180	18

Complete results

Round 3 results in Girls

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	16	WFM	Bidhar Rutumbara	1942	2	½ - ½	2	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	2272	1
2	2	WIM	Arpita Mukherjee	2234	2	1 - 0	2	WFM	Jain Nityata	1927	17
3	21		Ishvi Aggarwal	1854	2	0 - 1	2	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	2227	3
4	4	WFM	Makhija Aashna	2191	2	0 - 1	2	WCM	Arushi Kotwal	1756	25
5	22		Poorna Sri M.K	1848	2	0 - 1	2	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2185	5
6	6	WFM	Pandey Srishti	2140	2	1 - 0	2		Divyabharathi Masanam	1743	27
7	8	WFM	Salonika Saina	2100	2	0 - 1	2	WCM	Chinnam Vyshnavi	1689	29
8	24		Nanditha V	1828	2	0 - 1	2	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	2087	9
9	28		Garima Gaurav	1719	2	0 - 1	2		Toshali V	2057	11
10	12	WFM	Savitha Shri B	2004	2	1 - 0	2		Jegatha B	1585	39
11	30		Rathi Dhanashree	1688	2	1 - 0	2		Ghosh Samriddhaa	1964	15
12	14	WFM	Potluri Supreetha	1968	1½	1 - 0	2		Sachi Jain	1406	57
13	44		Mudaliar Nandini	1541	1½	½ - ½	1½	WCM	Sharma Isha	2139	7
14	38		Panda Miracle	1589	1½	0 - 1	1½		Bhagyashree Patil	1970	13
15	18	WFM	Tanishka Kotia	1909	1½	½ - ½	1½		Bharathakoti Sneha	1514	45

Complete results

Round 4 pairings in Open

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	9	FM	Srihari L R	2286	3		3	IM	Koustav Chatterjee	2449	1
2	2	IM	Mitrabha Guha	2443	3		3	FM	Wagh Suyog	2273	11
3	13	FM	Jeet Jain	2264	3		3		Harshavardhan G B	2360	5
4	18		Dhananjay S	2180	3		3	FM	Nitish Belurkar	2325	7
5	8	IM	Srijit Paul	2317	3		3	FM	Aaryan Varshney	2236	15
6	4	IM	Rajdeep Sarkar	2362	2½		3		Gaurav Rajesh Zagade	2173	19
7	10		Saurabh Anand	2278	2½		2½		Hemanth Raam	1992	36
8	12		Subhayan Kundu	2269	2½		2½		Grahesh Y	2026	31
9	14		Sibi Visal R	2238	2½		2½		Chaitanya Sairam Mogili	1921	43
10	16		Soham Kamotra	2189	2½		2½		Sharan Rao	1895	47
11	32		Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi	2017	2½		2½		Jayachandra Srinivas Vellanki	2048	25
12	42		Shreyash Shuvam Patnaik	1936	2½		2½		Arjun Gupta	2041	26
13	52		Dere Pushkar	1876	2½		2½		Jain Kashish Manoj	2041	27
14	28		Kumar Gaurav	2038	2½		2½		Rakshith Srinivasan	1884	48
15	69		Garv Gaur	1764	2		2	FM	Anuj Shrivatri	2376	3

Complete pairings

Round 4 pairings in Girls

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	11		Toshali V	2057	3		3	WIM	Arpita Mukherjee	2234	2
2	3	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	2227	3		3	WFM	Savitha Shri B	2004	12
3	5	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2185	3		3	WCM	Arushi Kotwal	1756	25
4	29	WCM	Chinnam Vyshnavi	1689	3		3	WFM	Pandey Srishti	2140	6
5	9	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	2087	3		3		Rathi Dhanashree	1688	30
6	1	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	2272	2½		2½	WFM	Potluri Supreetha	1968	14
7	13		Bhagyashree Patil	1970	2½		2½	WFM	Bidhar Rutumbara	1942	16
8	19		Shah Vishwa	1892	2½		2	WFM	Makhija Aashna	2191	4
9	7	WCM	Sharma Isha	2139	2		2		Rebecca Jesumarian	1568	40
10	39		Jegatha B	1585	2		2	WFM	Salonika Saina	2100	8
11	43		Cera Dagaria	1554	2		2		Priyanka K	2067	10
12	15		Ghosh Samriddhaa	1964	2		2		Azal Nasir	1556	42
13	17	WFM	Jain Nityata	1927	2		2		Mudaliar Nandini	1541	44
14	47		Harshini B	1507	2		2	WFM	Tanishka Kotia	1909	18
15	45		Bharathakoti Sneha	1514	2		2		Meenal Gupta	1879	20

Complete pairings

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