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.