National Women's Championship: Bhakti Kulkarni takes sole lead

by Aditya Pai - 23/11/2018

The eighth round of the Women's National Chess Championship saw another sole leader emerge. Of the three overnight leaders, only Bhakti Kulkarni was able to keep her tournament lead going. Defeating WGM Swati Ghate in the eighth round, Bhakti sped past her co-leaders, Mary Ann Gomes and Mahalakshmi M, who agreed to an insipid draw against each other. At the conclusion of the round, Mary and Mahalakshmi were joined in the second place by Michelle Catherina P, who scored a fantastic win over the tournament's top seed, IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman. Bommini Mounika Akshaya also scored an upset on board 8 beating Kiran Manisha Mohanty. Round 8 report.

Bhakti races ahead

In our previous report, we had mentioned that the pole position is quite volatile at the ongoing National Women's Chess Championship in Jaipur, Rajasthan. After round 6, Mary Ann Gomes (2286) had taken sole lead in the tournament. One round later, she was joined by Bhakti Kulkarni (2256) and Mahalaksmi M (2198) in the tournament lead. And now, at the conclusion of the eighth round, Mary is no longer among the leaders. Giving WGM Swati Ghate her second loss of the tournament, Goan WGM Bhakti Kulkarni sped past her co-leaders to take sole lead in the event.

Playing on board 2, Bhakti had the white pieces in a closed Catalan. 16 moves into the game, Bhakti had planted her knight deep into the enemy lines on the c6 square. To keep balance, Ghate was forced to give up her rook for the knight -- which she did but was a move too late. Bhakti immediately took control of the position by returning the exchange in lieu of a decisive far advanced pawn phalanx on the queenside and forced resignation by the 35th move.

With her win in round 8, Bhakti Kulkarni has taken sole lead in the tournament | Photo: Ankit Dalal

Meanwhile, on the top board, Mary Ann Gomes had the whites against the tournament's third co-leader at the time, Mahalakshmi M. The two discussed an English Opening that turned out to be a trade galore. Starting move 15, all of the rooks were traded and within the next ten moves, the players were left with two minor pieces and seven pawns apiece. It did not take much longer for the game to end peacefully.

Mary Ann Gomes slipped down to the second place after her draw against... | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

...Mahalakshmi M

While Gomes and Mahalakshmi slipped to the second place on the leaderboard after their draw, Michelle Catherina (2182) showed phenomenal tactical prowess to outplay the tournament's top seed, IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman from the white side of a Ruy Lopez Breyer.

Michelle Catherina brought her A-game to the board to outplay Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman in round 8 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

In another Ruy Lopez of the day, the 1859 rated Bommini Mounika Akshaya overcame a rating gap of more than 300 points to defeat Kiran Manisha Mohanty (2164) on board 8. Thus far, the 15-year-old from Gunthur has had a stunningly successful run. In these first eight rounds, Bommini has faced a higher rated player in every round with the exception being round 1 and has managed to remain unbeaten. What's more, she is performing at a performance rating of 2202 and has already gained 156 Elo points!

Bommini, after securing 10th place at the National Sub-Junior Championship, earlier this year | Photo: Swati Biswas

Bommini's performance thus far at the National Women's Championship

Standings (Top 10)

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	4	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	IND	2256	AI	7,0	0,0	38,0	42,0
2	2	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	IND	2286	PSPB	6,5	0,0	38,0	41,0
3	11	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	IND	2198	RSPB	6,5	0,0	37,0	41,0
4	13	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	IND	2182	TN	6,5	0,0	33,0	37,0
5	23		Priyanka Kumari	IND	2005	JHA	6,0	0,0	39,0	42,5
6	39	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	IND	1859	AP	6,0	0,0	35,5	38,0
7	19	WFM	Arpita Mukherjee	IND	2090	WB	6,0	0,0	33,0	36,5
8	1	IM	Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman	IND	2365	AI	5,5	0,0	39,5	44,0
9	5	WGM	Swati Ghate	IND	2256	LIC	5,5	0,0	38,0	41,5
10	26		Harini S.	IND	1998	TN	5,5	0,0	36,0	39,0

Results of round 8

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2286	6	½ - ½	6	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	2198	11
2	4	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2256	6	1 - 0	5½	WGM	Swati Ghate	2256	5
3	13	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	2182	5½	1 - 0	5½	IM	Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman	2365	1
4	6	WIM	Nandhidhaa P V	2240	5	½ - ½	5		Nimmy A.G.	2136	16
5	7	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2237	5	0 - 1	5		Priyanka Kumari	2005	23
6	10		Priyanka K	2207	5	0 - 1	5	WFM	Arpita Mukherjee	2090	19
7	12	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	2191	5	½ - ½	5	WGM	Ramaswamy Aarthie	1994	27
8	14	WGM	Kiran Manisha Mohanty	2164	5	0 - 1	5	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	1859	39
9	26		Harini S.	1998	5	½ - ½	4½	WIM	Chandreyee Hajra	1963	29
10	31		Saranya Y	1898	4½	½ - ½	4½	IM	Mohota Nisha	2276	3

Round 9 pairing

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

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