Goan girls bag team medals

All the three Goan girls - Riya Sawant,
Ivana Furtado and Bhakti Kulkarni - participating
in the World Youth Chess Championships
helped the country to bag team medals just
as India dominated proceedings on the
final day of the toughly contested tournament.

In the Girls Under 8 Section, Riya Sawant
helped the Indian team to edge out hosts Vietnam
to clinch the Gold Medal in the team event. India
and Vietnam both finished on and identical tally
of points, but India got the Gold via a superior
tiebreak. The United States of America got the
Bronze in this section. Riya finished 10th in her
section which is great considering that she finished
fourth in Asian Youth in Iran earlier this year.

In the Under 10 Girls section, Double World
Under 8 Girls Champion Ivana's smart recovery
towards the end of the tournament helped India
to bag the Gold medal just inching out narrowly
hosts Vietnam. The Woman Candidate Master
was in her elements as she beat Russian Ayna Egorova in
the last round and she herself finished 11th in the
individual section. Ivana may have set a record of
sorts as she won her third Gold in WYCC and she has
one in each of the three Championships - Batumi, Antalya
and Vung Tau!

In the Under 16 Girls Section, National Junior Girls
Champion Bhakti Kulkarni aided India to bag the Silver
again behind hosts Vietnam by a margin of 1.5 points.
Austria bagged the Bronze medal in this section. The
coach of the three players Dronacharya Awardee
Raghunandan Gokhale expressed satisfaction with the
outcome and said that in the coming years the trio will
'win many more laurels for the country and Goa'.

In the Individual events, India also put up an excellent
show. Padmini Rout (Girls Under 14), Sayantan Das
(Boys Under 12), Vidit Gujarathi (Boys Under 14)
and B. Adhiban (Boys Under 16) all won the Gold Medals
in their respective categories. Incidentally all four Gold
Medallists participated in the National 'B' Championships
which were conducted last month in Zambaulim, Goa.


Final Medals Tally

India 4-2-2 (Ind) 8-1-2 (Team) 12-3-4 (Total)
Vietnam 1-1-0 3-4-3 4-5-3
Croatia 2-0-0 0-0-1 2-0-1

Bhakti wins silver medal with a round to spare!

Goa's Woman FIDE Master Bhakti Kulkarni (ELO 2163)
assured herself of the silver medal in the National
Under 17 Chess Championships being played
in Aurangabad when she beat R. Bharathi (ELO 2031)
of Tamil Nadu in the penultimate round. She won a Scotch
Game in 41 moves.

Monginis Brand Ambassador and reigning National Junior Girls
Champion Bhakti later finished with 8 points out of nine rounds.
She easily beat J. Saranya (ELO 2040) of Tamil Nadu in the last
round. With this victory Bhakti also gained enough ELO
rating points to touch the 2200 mark. This enables her
to apply for the Candidate Master title as granted by
FIDE which is the apex chess body.

Next up for Bhakti and the other Goan wondergirl Ivana Furtado
and Riya Sawant is the World Youth Chess Championships
which get underway on the 17th in Vietnam. Their coach
Dronacharya awardee Raghunandan Gokhale will be travelling
with them to ensure their sufficient preparation and maximum
results.