Indian IM Vantika Agrawal explained what happened in the curious game against GM Harika Dronavalli at The Tata Steel Chess India 2026 — Women’s Blitz in an interview on the Chess Base India YouTube channel on January 12. Vantika noted that she did not notice Harika had run out of time, leading her to accept a draw.

Vantika Agrawal

Vantika Agrawal

Indian IM

“The position was repeating, and at some point, she lost on time, but I didn’t notice it. She continued to play, we made a couple more moves, there was a repetition again, and she offered a draw. I still hadn’t looked at the clocks and agreed.

And only after agreeing to the draw did I see that her flag had fallen. Then I called the arbiter and asked what was happening. He explained that if you don’t notice the flag fall and agree to a draw, the game is recorded as a draw. That’s what happened.

I think she herself saw that her flag had fallen, and that was her last attempt. If we had continued playing, I probably would’ve noticed it. But I didn’t notice and accepted the draw.”

The Tata Steel Chess India 2026 — Women’s Blitz took place in Kolkata, India from January 10 to 11. The event featured a $17,500 prize pool using 3+2 time control over two Round-Robin rounds between 10 players. IM Vantika Agrawal finished 2nd in the tournament, while GM Harika Dronavalli finished 9th.

Credit: Vivek Sohani