Mitrabha and Akshaya are sole leaders at National Junior 2019

by Shahid Ahmed - 06/11/2019

Overnight leader Mitrabha Guha made a quick draw with Koustav Chatterjee to maintain his half-point lead over the rest of the field at the conclusion of round 8 of 49th National Junior 2019. Rajdeep Sarkar also made a short draw with Aaryan Varshney in just 29 moves. Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi shocked Srijit Paul when the latter blundered a pawn and exchange in the opening. In the girls section, Bommini Mounika Akshaya defeated Arpita Mukherjee to claim sole lead, after the latter made a few inaccuracies in critical moment. Priyanka K missed plenty of opportunities and eventually drew with Srishti Pandey. Nityata Jain scored a big win against Saina Salonika. Photo: IA Jitendra Choudhary

Akshaya shocks Arpita to claim sole lead

Ninth seeded WFM Bommini Mounika Akshaya defeated second seeded WIM Arpita Mukherjee to claim sole lead at the conclusion of round 8 of 34th National Junior girls 2019.

Bommini Mounika Akshaya takes sole lead | Photo: Jitendra Choudhary

Akshaya - Arpita

How should black respond to white's threat of capturing the e5 pawn?

Arpita played 23...Qd7. There were other ways too and Akshaya took the pawn with 24.Qxe5

Find the best continuation for black

Black either has to get some compensation for the lost e5-pawn or get a pawn back. If neither can be obtained then black will end up in serious trouble which is what happened in the game after black went with 24...Ne8

There is only last way left for black to save the game. Can you find it?

After a bunch of wrong chain exchange and few moves later, the above diagram arised. White has a menacing c6 and e5 passed pawns. Neither of them are easy to get rid of. Black can only save the game by maximizing all pieces' prowess but unfortunately for Arpita she opted for 43...Nxe4 which accelerated Black's demise.

Priyanka K missed several winning opportunities despite having dominated for the major part of the game. Srishti made sure to fight till the end and not give up, which ultimately paid off for her as she managed to salvage a draw out of an extremely inferior position.

Priyanka K would have been happier to score a full point | Photo: Jitendra Choudhary

Priyanka - Srishti

Several choices are there for white, what is the best continuation?

White's queen is under attack, moving it should be optimum choice for white, however Priyanka decided to take the pawn with 26.Bxd4 despite the fact that her bishop is much more superior than black's knight.

Which white piece is not activated yet?

White's b1-rook would definitely like to join the party to launch an attack but unfortunately b7 is protected by the queen. However the h1-rook is yet to join the game. Naturally involving all pieces in the attack should be the logical conclusion, but Priyanka decided to continue the game with 31.Qe5+ which does not help white to improve the position.

Now that all white pieces are actively participating, what should white do next?

Passed pawns must be pushed - one of the most important golden rules of chess.

White can still bring the full point home. Find out how

White made one last irrevocable mistake by retreating her rook with 47.R7e3 and Black obviously took the a3-pawn and draw was agreed in another 15 moves as white had no good way to make progress.

Third seeded WIM Aakanksha Hagawane defeated WFM Rutumbara Bidhar without any difficulty.

Madhya Pradesh's record breaking multi-time State champion Nityata Jain scored a big win | Photo: Jitendra Choudhary

WFM Nityata Jain beat WFM Saina Salonika in a prolonged rook ending. Despite playing the double rook ending initially with precision, in the end she took a bit longer than it was required.

Top seed WIM Priyanka Nutakki got back to winning ways as she scored a clinical victory over Tanishka Kotia.

In the open section, top board witnessed a quick draw between state mates IM Mitrabha Guha and IM Koustav Chatterjee. On the second board, Rajdeep Sarkar sacrificed his queen against Aaryan Varshney for enough compensation. However the evaluation did not change by much and a draw was agreed via threefold repetition in just 29 moves.

Aakash scored an important victory | Photo: Jitendra Choudhary

Aakash Sharadchandra-Dalvi of Maharashtra shocked IM Srijit Paul as Aakash went out of theory in as early as sixth move in Srijit's favorite Dutch Defence. Even though it did not make a huge difference until Srijit blundered a pawn and lost an exchange in the process.

Aakash - Srijit

Black played 19...Kf8. Find out why it is a blunder

Round 8 results in Open

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	2	IM	Mitrabha Guha	2443	6½	½ - ½	6	IM	Koustav Chatterjee	2449	1
2	4	IM	Rajdeep Sarkar	2362	5½	½ - ½	6	FM	Aaryan Varshney	2236	15
3	32		Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi	2017	5½	1 - 0	5½	IM	Srijit Paul	2317	8
4	10		Saurabh Anand	2278	5½	1 - 0	5½		Akshit Kumar J	2014	34
5	16		Soham Kamotra	2189	5½	½ - ½	5½		Hemanth Raam	1992	36
6	52		Dere Pushkar	1876	5½	0 - 1	5½		Grahesh Y	2026	31
7	17	CM	Bhavesh Mahajan	2187	5	0 - 1	5	FM	Anuj Shrivatri	2376	3
8	19		Gaurav Rajesh Zagade	2173	5	1 - 0	5	FM	Nitish Belurkar	2325	7
9	24		Anadkat Kartavya	2060	5	½ - ½	5	FM	Srihari L R	2286	9
10	28		Kumar Gaurav	2038	5	1 - 0	5	FM	Wagh Suyog	2273	11
11	12		Subhayan Kundu	2269	5	0 - 1	5		Aradhya Garg	2165	20
12	50		Dubey Sanchay	1880	5	0 - 1	5	FM	Jeet Jain	2264	13
13	90		Avinash Ramesh	1686	5	1 - 0	5		Sibi Visal R	2238	14
14	49		Saypuri Srithan	1881	4½	0 - 1	4½		Harshavardhan G B	2360	5
15	55		Sreekar J S S	1850	4½	1 - 0	4½		Anustoop Biswas	2154	21

Complete results

Round 8 results in Women

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	9	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	2087	6	1 - 0	6	WIM	Arpita Mukherjee	2234	2
2	10		Priyanka K	2067	6	½ - ½	6	WFM	Pandey Srishti	2140	6
3	3	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	2227	5½	1 - 0	5½	WFM	Bidhar Rutumbara	1942	16
4	17	WFM	Jain Nityata	1927	5½	1 - 0	5½	WFM	Salonika Saina	2100	8
5	1	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	2272	5	1 - 0	5½	WFM	Tanishka Kotia	1909	18
6	15		Ghosh Samriddhaa	1964	5	0 - 1	5	WFM	Makhija Aashna	2191	4
7	5	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2185	5	1 - 0	5		Toshali V	2057	11
8	7	WCM	Sharma Isha	2139	5	½ - ½	5	WFM	Savitha Shri B	2004	12
9	19		Shah Vishwa	1892	5	0 - 1	5		Meenal Gupta	1879	20
10	26	AGM	Renganayaki V	1756	5	1 - 0	4½		Ishvi Aggarwal	1854	21
11	13		Bhagyashree Patil	1970	4½	1 - 0	4½		Rathi Dhanashree	1688	30
12	32		Senthamizh Yazhini S	1678	4½	0 - 1	4½	WFM	Potluri Supreetha	1968	14
13	22		Poorna Sri M.K	1848	4½	1 - 0	4½		Kiruthika B	1645	34
14	40		Rebecca Jesumarian	1568	4½	1 - 0	4½		Nanditha V	1828	24
15	25	WCM	Arushi Kotwal	1756	4½	1 - 0	4½		Anjitha Krishnakumar	1384	60

Complete results

Round 9 pairings in Open

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	31		Grahesh Y	2026	6½		7	IM	Mitrabha Guha	2443	2
2	1	IM	Koustav Chatterjee	2449	6½		6½		Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi	2017	32
3	15	FM	Aaryan Varshney	2236	6½		6½		Saurabh Anand	2278	10
4	3	FM	Anuj Shrivatri	2376	6		6		Soham Kamotra	2189	16
5	20		Aradhya Garg	2165	6		6	IM	Rajdeep Sarkar	2362	4
6	13	FM	Jeet Jain	2264	6		6		Kumar Gaurav	2038	28
7	36		Hemanth Raam	1992	6		6		Gaurav Rajesh Zagade	2173	19
8	5		Harshavardhan G B	2360	5½		6		Avinash Ramesh	1686	90
9	8	IM	Srijit Paul	2317	5½		5½		Ayush Sharma	1975	39
10	9	FM	Srihari L R	2286	5½		5½		Aditya Varun Gampa	1908	44
11	37		Selvamurugan B	1979	5½		5½		Anadkat Kartavya	2060	24
12	27		Jain Kashish Manoj	2041	5½		5½		Sreekar J S S	1850	55
13	29		Mahindrakar Indrajeet	2034	5½		5½		Dere Pushkar	1876	52
14	34		Akshit Kumar J	2014	5½		5½		Mohit Kumar Soni	1844	58
15	45		Sibi Srinivas Einstein	1898	5½		5		Subhayan Kundu	2269	12

Complete pairings

Round 9 pairings in Girls

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	3	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	2227	6½		7	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	2087	9
2	6	WFM	Pandey Srishti	2140	6½		6½	WFM	Jain Nityata	1927	17
3	4	WFM	Makhija Aashna	2191	6		6½		Priyanka K	2067	10
4	20		Meenal Gupta	1879	6		6	WIM	Priyanka Nutakki	2272	1
5	2	WIM	Arpita Mukherjee	2234	6		6	AGM	Renganayaki V	1756	26
6	7	WCM	Sharma Isha	2139	5½		6	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	2185	5
7	8	WFM	Salonika Saina	2100	5½		5½	WCM	Arushi Kotwal	1756	25
8	12	WFM	Savitha Shri B	2004	5½		5½		Poorna Sri M.K	1848	22
9	18	WFM	Tanishka Kotia	1909	5½		5½		Bhagyashree Patil	1970	13
10	14	WFM	Potluri Supreetha	1968	5½		5½		Rebecca Jesumarian	1568	40
11	16	WFM	Bidhar Rutumbara	1942	5½		5½		Sai Mahati A	1412	56
12	11		Toshali V	2057	5		5		Sinthia Sarkar	1600	37
13	39		Jegatha B	1585	5		5		Ghosh Samriddhaa	1964	15
14	53		Vakcheri Mohitha	1451	5		5		Shah Vishwa	1892	19
15	57		Sachi Jain	1406	5		5	WFM	Greeshma Anand Dhumal	1837	23