AGENCIES, ERFURT: Goa’s Woman Grandmaster and Goa Carbon Limited Goodwill Ambassador Bhakti Kulkarni continued her winning spree as she won the International Women Blitz Tournament, held at Erfurt(Germany), on Saturday.
The recently crowned National Challenger’s Champion smashed through a very distinguished field to remain unbeaten throughout the gruelling 13 rounds.
In fact Bhakti came as a last moment replacement for Iranian WGM Hezazpour Mitra. The petite girl from Margao started as 11th seed out of a star studded field of 14 players. The tournament was held at Aanger 1- a big mall in the heart of Erfurt city. With evening crowd watching the action, Bhakti played quick, winning 9 games and drawing remaining 4.
Bhakti won whopping 96.4 Elo points for this superlative performance. International Master and WGM Karina Szczepkowska(Pronounced-Zepkowska) of Poland stood second with 9.5 points while Iranian WGM Atousa Pourkashiyan(8.5) bagged the third place. Top seeded German Woman Grandmaster Sarah Hoolt had to be satisfied with 4th place.
Bhakti is also competing in the main International Classical Tournament where she is seeded 13th in the star-studded field. She will move to participate in Prague International Open after this event in Germany.
