AGENCIES, PUNJAB: Woman Grandmaster and Goa Carbon Limited Goodwill Ambassador Bhakti Kulkarni caused a major flutter when she won Bronze medal in the National Blitz Chess Championship held in Jullunder, Punjab.
The National Woman Champion from Goa stood behind National Men Champion GM Arvind Chidambaram and GM R.R.Laxman.
Bhakti- a Golden girl from Goa has created a new record by standing in the medal list of National Men’s Championship!
One day early, Bhakti proved her prowess in rapid chess when she tied for third place in the National Rapid Chess Championship. Dark horse of the Championship, Bhakti defeated GM Sriram Jha and IM Dinesh Kumar Sharma in the Rapid Championship.
Bhakti’s results improved spectacularly in the National Blitz when she beat India’s latest GM Swayams Mishra, IM Rahul Shetty, WGM Minikshi, WGM Swati Ghate before drawing with champion Arvind in the final round.
Thus, Bhakti has emerged as the top woman player of India in all three formats of the chess namely – classical, rapid and blitz.
Bhakti will now represent India in the World Rapid and Blitz Championship in December. She has already booked her seat in the World Cup in the classical format.
Bhakti was excited after her performance! “A girl playing among men and winning a medal is never heard of in the history of Indian chess! I am happy that I could do it,” she said.
Bhakti’s next destination is China where she will represent India in the Asian Continental Championship in the first week of June.
