Goan players - Ivana Furtado and Bhakti Kulkarni - had a mixed day in the
World Youth Chess Championships being played at Antalya, Turkey. Whereas
Ivana defeated Narmin Mammadova of Azerbaijan, Bhakti (ElO 2112) lost to
Latvian Katrina Skinke (ELO 2166).
Ivana, under the guidance of her coach, Dronacharya awardee Raghunandan
Gokhale is going from strength to strength. Today's victory gave her the
joint lead along with two other girls - Zhansaya Abdumalik of Kazhakastan
and Vietnamese Thanh Thuy Tien Nguyen. Whereas her coleaders will play each
other in the 5th round, next up for Ivana is arch rival and compatriot C.H.
Meghna (ELO 1716) who is in joint fourth place with 3.5 points.
Bhakti's loss today will surely put her in a tight spot as far as the medal
race is concerned. Perhaps she had not recovered fully from yesterday's
botched victory and today she was totally offcolour against the Latvian
girl. Bhakti will need to regain her winning touch and score heavily in her
next few games including the upcoming one against Britisher Amisha Parmar
(ELO 2007) if she has to come back into the reckoning for the Under 16
Girls title.
3rd seed Asian Junior Champion WIM Mary Ann Gomes (ELO 2262) had no
problems whatsoever in scoring her fourth straight win in the Under 18 Girls
section by beating unrated Celsa Santana Sanchez of Venezuela. in 46 moves
of a King's Indian Attack opening. She will be a definite prospect for a
Gold medal as will International Master S.P. Sethuraman (ELO 2427) who
defeated FM Vidit Gujarathi (ELO ) in 51 moves of a Catalan setup.
Seven more rounds remain in this event of which two will be played on
Thursday. Friday will be the rest day when the 1450 odd entries can pause
and take breath before they move into the home stretch of this mega event!
SOURCE: Sameer Salgaocar - President - GSCA
