Bhakti beats Harini to take a one point lead

Goa's Commonwealth Under 18 Girls Champion
Bhakti Kulkarni (ELO 2112) beat Tamil Nadu's 11th seeded
S. Harini (ELO 2087) to establish a clear one point lead
in the Eighth round of the National Junior Girls
Championship being played at Nagpur today. Bhakti,
not given a chance by too many of the pundits at the
start of the tournament, had participated in
the event primarily for experience. This performance,
especially her wins in the last two rounds against
S. Harini and P. Sivasankari (ELO 2101) has
surprised all the chess faithful and perhaps Bhakti herself.

S. Harini is an extremely experienced player
(having played in the National Women's 'A') and
had the advantage of playing with the White pieces.
She had beaten Bhakti in the National Women's 'B'
in 2006 and although Bhakti had reversed the score in
the National 'A' later in the same year, this encounter was expected to be
closely fought. The expectations were rightly justified and
what decidedly turned the match in Bhakti's favour was the
superior opening preparation imparted to her by
her Coach - Dronacharya awardee Raghunandan Gokhale.
She played a new line from the Ruy Lopez which she had
never employed before and this caught her opponent
offguard. Harini could not cope with the surprise and
eventually resigned after an enthralling middlegame.
Bhakti next plays P. Uthra (ELO 2060) of Tamil Nadu in the
ninth round later today.

On the second board, the game between top seeded Asian Junior Champion
WIM Mary Ann Gomes (ELO 2274) of West Bengal
and highly rated Padmini Rout (ELO 2246) of Orissa
ended peacefully in a draw. This means that Bhakti with 7.5 points has a clear lead
of one point over her nearest rival. However, with three rounds to go, anything
is possible and Goa's wondergirl Bhakti will be aiming
to finish in the top 3 and book herself a spot in the
World Junior Championships to be played in Ankara, Turkey
in August, 2008.