Dear Mr. Bandekar, I was surprised to read about " Anurag's Qualification" and my "Non Qualification" in Goan papers on net.
Though we tried our best,none of us ( Anurag Mhamal (8.5),Rohan Ahuja(8) and myself(8 points) could reach the target of 9.5 points.We all failed to qualify. The All India Chess federation had changed the number of qualifiers from 30 to 9 in 2011-12. In fact last year the Men National Premier and Women national Premiers were played with top 9 qualifiers from respective challengers.Both Ivana and myself qualified in top 9 for the Women Premiers though unfortunately none of the Goans qualified for Men's premier. The prospectus of the national Challengers clearly mention the number of qualifiers on Page 4 mentioning that Top 9 would qualify.(Please find it enclosed herewith). All of the players playing in Dharamshala( including Goans) knew beforehand how many were going to qualify. You must be having the correct picture because you receive all the communications from the Federation. Please guide the press accordingly. I was the only Woman Grandmaster who dared to play amongst men in the Challengers at Dharamshala. Like in all other sports, chess is proved to be energy sapping game and the girls cannot match the Men in the long run. However I dared to take part in the Championship and scored 8 points. I was disappointed to see one of the papers mentioning that I could not qualify while Anurag qualified. I do not have anything against anybody but it hurts when the press mentions wrong things. I am trying my best to bring laurels to our state by playing in tough tournaments (where I am not supposed to play).It hurts to find that you are termed as "loser". The Goan press has always stood behind the chess players. In fact I received stardom thanks to their support. They must have received totally wrong information from unofficial and ignorant sources; otherwise they would not have committed such blunder. I humbly request you to give them correct picture. Thanks and regards....BHAKTI -- *Ms. Bhakti Kulkarni,* *Asian Indoor Games Double Medalist,* *Goodwill Ambassador for GCL,* *International Woman Grand Master,* *Goa,India.*
