Ivana continues to dominate, Bhakti held to a draw

Ivana Furtado continued her fine form with a win over
P. Preethy in the third round of the World Youth
Chess Championships being played in Antalya,
Turkey. However, the other Goan in the fray,
WFM Bhakti Kulkarni was unlucky not to win a full point
against her highly rated opponent and had to remain
content with a draw.

In her game against 6th seed WFM Abby
Marshall (ELO 2208) of the United States,
National Junior Girls Champion Bhakti (ELO 2112) used
a novelty on the twelfth move of the Queen's
Gambit Declined, Tarrasch Variation prepared
by her coach Dronacharya awardee Raghunandan
Gokhale. Her opponent was obviously caught offguard and
fell behind on time while preparing her replies
to this unusual choice of plan. Bhakti developed
her advantage positionally and won a pawn as well.
She looked all set to win the game except that she
blundered in the last stages of the endgame and
had to settle for half the point.

What was unfortunate was that Bhakti missed the chance
to put away a high quality opponent. Abby Marshall has
has won two national invitational girls' chess tournaments
over the past two years and tied for eight place (along
with GM Hikaru Nakamura!) at this year's U.S. Open.
Nevertheless, credit must be given to both the players
for the fighting spirit shown in this remarkable encounter.

Ivana, with 3 points from 3 rounds, looks good to go
all the way as per Coach Gokhale. She next faces
Narmin Mammadova of Azerbaijan in the 4th round
in her quest to become the youngest Indian to win two
World Championships and the first Indian to win a World
Championship in two consecutive years. Altogether six players
share the lead after the 3rd round in the Girls Under Eight
section, and eight more rounds remain in this prestigious
tournament.

In the Under 18 Girls Section, India has a bright chance
as both 2nd seed WIM Kiran Manisha Mohanty and WIM Mary
Ann Gomes are on top of the table with 3 points each (along
with 3 others). In the Under 14 Open section, IM S.P. Sethuraman
would be rated as a strong contender after he disposed off former
World Champion FIDE Master Narayanan Srinath. Altogether
1450 players from 103 countries are taking part in this mega event.

Finally a quote from Bhakti's opponent (Abby)
on the endgame -
'The end game is where you have to be precise,
where you have to be fast and smart.
You have to make sure that you what want
to do happens faster than what your opponent wants'.

Well said Abby!!