Bhakti Becomes Woman Grand Master
Goa Carbon Limited Brand Ambassador Bhakti Kulkarni has achieved what
every chess player dreams!! The 19 year old Arts student from Chougule
College, Madgao is India’s latest International Woman Grandmaster (WGM).
Bhakti defeated International Woman Master Renata Gazik of Poland on the
way to second place and the Woman Grandmaster norm in the last round of
the Orlova Women Grand Masters Tournament in the Czech Republic today.
Bhakti had defeated WGMs Doluhanova and Jaracz early in the competition.
A player has to achieve three norms to be awarded the title of Grand
master. Bhakti had scored her first two norms at Merienbad (Czech) and
Kesckemet(Hungary) in January/February this year. "She has enormous
potential and it is evident from the fact that Bhakti became a WGM
within one year of becoming International Woman Master,” said her coach
Dronacharya Raghunandan Gokhale.
“I owe this success to Goa Carbon Limited and Mr.Shrinivas Dempo,” said
the latest Woman Grandmaster from Czech Republic. “Had Goa Carbon not
helped me, it was impossible to achieve anything. I won many
International norms and prizes in the last three years when GCL started
sponsoring me.”
Bhakti’s father Pradip could not express his joy in words. “I was a
chess player myself in college and knew how difficult it is to become a
Grand master. Bhakti excelled under tension and did not crack. It is
very important achievement.” Bhakti’s mother Priya was busy distributing
sweets to the well wishers.
Bhakti started her career with a rating of 2086 when she was just 10
years old. This very high rating exhibits her talent as no girl in Goa
has come near what Bhakti had achieved without any help.
The Goans will have to wait to personally greet Bhakti for a few days as
she will be playing in the Asian Junior Girls Championship at Colombo
(Sri Lanka) from June 2nd. She will proceed directly from Europe to Sri
Lanka with a short stopover of a few hours in Mumbai on Tuesday.
For Details/ games/photos, please log on to
http://www.sachyorlova.cz/open/indexe.html.
Goanet Sports
