Bhakti and Sethuraman win Asian gold

Woman Grandmaster Bhakti Kulkarni and Grandmaster S P Sethuraman made history, winning the gold medal in the Asian Continental Women's and open chess championship that concluded here.
Playing in top form right through the tournament, Bhakti sealed the top slot playing out a draw with Hoang Thi Bao Tram of Vietnam while Sethuraman came up with an inspired performance to beat Wei Yi of China in a fantastic effort with black pieces.
For the records, Bhakti ended with seven points in all, a half point ahead of DInara Saduakassova of Kazakhstan and fellow Indian Soumya Swaminathan.
In addition to the title, Bhakti also qualified to the next Women's world championship to be held later this year.

Sethuraman, who also ended on seven points, will get an entry to the next world chess cup to be held in Batumi, Georgia, in 2017. The other Indian to qualify for the world chess cup is Grandmaster Deep Sengupta who put it across Wen Yang of China to finish fifth.
Le Quang Liem, finished second despite the loss while Wei Yi finished third thanks to his good performance earlier int eh tournament. The fourth place in open went to Murtas Kazhgaleyev of Kazakshtan.

Apart from the two gold medals, Soumya Swaminathan added a bronze by coming third after tying for the second spot int he women's section.

It is also pay time for the winners as Sethuraman got richer by USD 11000 whiel Bhakti Kulkarni will get 5000 USD for her effort.
Speaking about the triumph Bhakti said, "when I looked at the players list I had this feeling that I can win, I made preparation participating in two tournaments in Nashik and Mumbai and came here thinking not about result but playing good chess."
In the end it paid off as the Goan girl simply played superb chess and was not seriously worse in any of the games.
When asked what she planned to with the prize money, Bhakti was candid, "I will use it for European tournaments and training," she said.

Sethuraman played a gem of a game to put Wei Yi under a storm of cloud. The Chinese had reasons to believe he was doing well when he sacrificed a piece in the middle game but Sethuraman was cold as ice in putting up the best defense. In the end the extra piece did the talking.