PANJIM: Commonwealth Women chess champion and Goodwill ambassador of Goa Carbon Ltd., Women Grandmaster Bhakti Kulkarni secured seven points as she scored an easy win over Lakshmi Praneetha of Andhra Pradesh to finish fourth with a prize money of Rs 60,000 in National Women Premier Chess championship, which concluded, at Sangli, Maharashtra, on Wednesday.
WGM Padmini Rout of Odisha clinched the title while IM Nisha Mohota of PSPB was the runner-up. WGM Mary Ann Gomes of West Bengal secured the third spot.
Bhakti just missed the medal where in top 12 women National players participated in round robin chess tournament.
At the same time, Goa’s ninth seeded WIM Ivana Furtado scored six points to secure the sixth position with a prize money of Rs 40,000.
In the last round she tried to hold WGM Swathi Ghate of LIC but she lost her game.
This is the first time that Goa has two places in the top six and is the only State to achieve this.
The top six players of the championship will represent India in the exposure trip to Moscow in February, 2015.
In the previous edition, Ivana finished seventh while Bhakti settled for the eighth spot.
