Goa's Woman FIDE Master Bhakti Kulkarni (ELO 2062) added another Gold medal and a feather in her cap in the Commonwealth Chess Championships to complete a scintillating run for the Goan Chess players in 2006. First, in the month of June, Bhakti won the Gold in the Asian Under 14 in Teheran, Iran. Next in September, wondergirl Ivana Furtado won the Gold in the World Under 8 in Batumi, Georgia. The final icing on the cake was provided by Bhakti again when she won Gold in the Under 16 section of the Commonwealth Chess Championships that concluded today at the Eskay Resorts venue in Borivali, Mumbai. All this has happened in a space of 6 months and that too from the tiny state of Goa which was previously unheard of in the field of chess!!
Bhakti finished with 5.5 points out of a possible 10. She finished with a performance rating of 2243 and she will be gaining a whopping 43 FIDE rating points for her efforts. Although she is in the Under 14 section, her display earned her a Gold in the Under 16 section for her exquisite performance. In her sterling display, she beat FIDE Master Priyadarshan (ELO 2222), WIM and Asian Junior Champion Mary Ann Gomes (ELO 2264), young upcoming star M. R. Lalith Babu (ELO 2292) and local favourite Ramkrishna Kashelkar (ELO 2323). Bhakti also held Jammu Open winner International Master Himanshu Sharma (ELO 2387) to a creditable draw during the course of the tournament. Bhakti's coach and India's only Dronacharya Awardee Raghunandan Gokhale expressed happiness with Bhakti's efforts. He said that the standard of Bhakti's games had been very good and singled out her game against former Asian Gold Medallist Priyadarshan where her one move 'Bd8' led to a Zugzwang position and deprived her opponent any suitable move without involving a huge loss in material. Even in her loss with Singapore Grandmaster Wu Shaobin (ELO 2475), Bhakti earned heaps of praise from her fancied opponent for the fight that she put up. AICF Vice President and GSCA President Sameer A. Salgaocar flew in specially from China for the Prize Distribution ceremony said that Bhakti had provided him with a perfect welcome gift. He also accepted special award of recognition on behalf of World Under 8 Champion Ivana Furtado from Commonwealth President Grandmaster Nigel Short. In the Open section, British Grandmaster Nigel Short (ELO 2677) clinched the top spot with a win over National Champion GM Ganguly (ELO 2573) in the final round. Nigel finished with 9 points and won by a clear point margin from GM Sandipan Chanda (ELO 2550) and IM Venkatesh (ELO 2466) who finished second and third respectively. World Under 18 Gold medallist and WGM Dronavalli Harika (ELO 2353) finished first in the Women's section with 7 points. SOURCE: Sameer A. Salgaocar, President- GSCA ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Goanet supports BMX, the alumni network of Britto's, St Mary's and Xavier's -- three prominent institutions in Mapusa, Goa. Events scheduled from Dec 16 to 21, 2006 For more details visit http://www.bmxgoa.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------