Bhakti is Goa’s first WGM
TNN | May 30, 2011, 04.54am IST
PANAJI: Goan chess is now, quite literally, at an all time high. A week after Ivana Furtado won the under-12 event at the Asian Youth Chess Championship in The Phillipines, another Goan continued to step into unchartered territories and make everyone sit up and take notice.
Bhakti Kulkarni, Goa’s original pace-setter in chess, became the first Goan International Woman Grandmaster after she accounted for International Woman Master Renata Gazik of Poland at the Orlova Women Grandmasters tournament in the Czech Republic on Sunday. Bhakti only managed to finish second in the Czech Republic but a bigger prize awaited her: the Woman Grandmaster title.
A player has to achieve three norms to be awarded the title of Grandmaster. Bhakti, 19, had scored her first two norms at Merienbad (Czech Republic) and Kesckemet ( Hungary) earlier this year. Her stupendous performance now in the Czech Republic where she defeated WGMs Doluhanova and Jaracz early in the competition, helped complete the circle. The 19-year-old, a brand ambassador for Goa Carbon, dedicated her success to her sponsor.
“Had my sponsors not helped me, it would have been impossible to achieve anything. I won many international norms and prizes in the last three years since GCL started sponsoring me,” Bhakti said in a statement. Bhakti is now proceeding to Sri Lanka where she will take part in the Asian Junior Girls Championship at Colombo.
Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
What’s her rating?