TEAM HERALD
sports@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: Goa’s WGM Bhakti Kulkarni was the talk of the town as the Goa Carbon Limited goodwill ambassador outwitted many foreigners at the Mumbai Mayor’s Cup to achieve a men’s international master’s norm which concluded on Monday in Mumbai.
Bhakti was the only woman to stand in the top 20 among this fiercely contested tournament which included players from 19 different countries.
Chief Arbiter RC Chatterjee and tournament director Ravindra Dongre, who is also the treasurer of All India Chess federation congratulated Bhakti for achieving this near miracle.
Bhakti defeated American GM Rashit Ziatdinov, followed with a draw with GM’s Luka Paichadze of Georgia and George Harutjanyan of Armenia). She also defeated highly rated American D Aaron on the way to the spectacular norm.
“She surely ruined these foreigners’ dream of raiding the prize fund,” gleefully observed Bhakti’s trainer, Dronacharya Gokhale said.
Bhakti had already achieved one IM norm when she had won Highland international tournament in Czech Republic last year. This ever smiling star from Margao needs one more norm to become Men’s IM.
“I have already achieved Women’s Grandmaster title and had nothing more to win in that category so I decided to vie for the Men’s title as a challenge,” said Bhakti who was mobbed during the valedictory function by her “Mumbai Movers” teammates.
Bhakti gave credit of her victory to her trainer. “After my uninspiring performance in the National men’s challengers, I decided to change my tactics. I started playing attacking chess and the top men players could not digest the fact that a girl was playing their game,” Bhakti stated.
“Hats off to Gokhale sir who polished my game in just three days. It’s unbelievable,” exclaimed the winner of Best woman prize in Mumbai ahead of Kurbonbaeva of Uzbekistan and Toma Katarzyna of Poland. Other Goans performed well and were notable among the crowd with IM Anurag Mhamal claiming the 57th spot, WIM Ivana Furtado 76th position and Rohan Ahuja finishing in the 78th position.
