Bhakti finishes fourth

(Photo - Current national Junior Girls Champion Bhakti
Kulkarni being felicitated by Goa Chief Minister Digamber
Kamat in presence of AICF Vice President Sameer A.
Salgaocar)

Monginis Brand Ambassador and current National
Junior Girls Champion Bhakti Kulkarni finished
4th in the National Women's 'B' Championship
which concluded in Calicut. By virtue of this performance,
she qualified for the prestigious National 'A' Championship
for the second time in her career and this event will be
held in New Delhi in September this year.

Bhakti drew her last round game with WIM Padmini
Rout of Orissa and they both finished with 8 out of
a possible 11 points. First place was bagged by
WGM Eesha Karavade who drew her last round game
with Pon. Krithika of Tamil Nadu. This was the most hotly
contested National 'B' ever with as many as 5 Women
Grandmasters competing in a field of 113 players.

Bhakti will be gaining 27 ELO rating points for her efforts
and her performance is at the 2282 level which shows
that she can try to complete her Woman International
Master title during the latter course of the year.
AICF Vice President Salgaocar praised her performance
noting that 'Bhakti has come back to chess with a bang
after a 6 month hiatus in which she appeared for her
10th standard exams'. 'We, in the Goan chess fraternity,
are all very proud of her', he added.

Bhakti's coach, Dronacharya awardee Raghunandan Gokhale
stated that this performance will instill in her 'tremendous
confidence for her upcoming tournaments'. The Woman
FIDE Master will next be playing in Spain in the 24th Sort
Open and in the "Villa de Benasque" tournaments before
she heads off to Teheran for the Asian Youth Chess
Championships.

GSCA to apply for clocks to AICF

Sameer A. Salgaocar, President of Goa
State Chess Association disclosed that
Goa State Chess Association will apply
to the All India Chess Federation to
purchase digital chess clocks at a
subsidised rate.

Under the new scheme, the Federation
can avail of clocks under the 75 percent
subsidy scheme and has applied for 1000
clocks. AICF will retain 200 clocks and
the balance clocks will be distributed to all
the member associations. 'Goa will try to
avail maximum clocks under this facility,'
Salgaocar said 'as we are a fledgeling
organisation and we want to ramp up our
logistics and infrastructure for successful
conduct of tournaments in the future'.

In another significant decision, the AICF
decided to strip last year's National Girls
Under 7 Champion N. Madhumita of Andhra
Pradesh of her title when she was found overage
in a subsequent Championship in New Delhi.
With this decision, the All India Chess
Federation has also decided to apply to SAI
for clearance for Goa's Riya Sawant who had
finished fourth for participation in the World
Youth Chess Championships in Vietnam.

Riya, will be only the third Goan player, after
Ivana Furtado and Bhakti Kulkarni to be selected
to represent the country in an international tournament.
Incidentally, Bhakti will be flying to Spain tomorrow
for participation in two Open events followed by a stint
in the Asian Youth Championships in Teheran where
she will be joined by double World Youth Girls Under 8
Champion Ivana Furtado.

Results of AICF elections for term 2008-2011

(Photo - Manuel Aaron, Returning Officer, reading out the results
at the Annual General meeting on the 20th of June)
I. President
S.No.Name of the Candidate State
1. Mr.N.Srinivasan Tamil Nadu State Chess Association

II. Vice Presidents
S.No.Name of the Candidate State
1. Mr.A.Bakthavachalam Pondicherry State Chess Association
2. Mr. Ravindra M.Dongre Maharashtra Chess Association
3. Mr.Sameer Anil Salgaocar Goa State Chess Association
4. Mr.Pradeep Jain Haryana Chess Association
5. Mr.A.Narasimha Reddy Andhra Pradesh Chess Association
6. Dr.Kashmir Singh UP Chess Sports Association

III. Hon.Secretary
S.No.Name of the Candidate State
1. Mr.D.V.Sundar Tamil Nadu State Chess Association

IV. Hon.Treasurer
S.No. Name of the Candidate State
1. Mr.Bharat Singh Delhi Chess Association

V. Jt.Secretaries
S.No.Name of the Candidate State
1. Mr.Udayan Kanti Ghosh West Bengal Chess Association
2. Mr.N K Mishra All Jharkand Chess Association
3. Mr.Vipnesh Bhardwaj Chandigarh Chess Association
4. Mr.F.Anil Madhya Kshetra Shatranj Sangh
5. Mr. P. K Choudhuri All Tripura Chess Association
6. Mr. G.Bhasker Andaman Nicobar Chess Assn


Manuel Aaron
Returning Officer