Bhakti wins Commonwealth Gold, Goa completes treble!

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 2344 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 18 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.