The world's leading Women's Chess Blog, hosted by the Grandmaster
and Chess Queen™, Reigning 12th World Chess Champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
Ladies Shine in the Dragon
Black to move
Hello everybody!
Right now I'm working on my new opening DVD series. And the first DVD in that series will be about How to play the Dragon variation of the Sicilian Defense.
During my work I found one magnificent game played by a WGM. I'm sure you will enjoy the attack by WGM Beata Kadziolka who won in brilliant style against GM Bakre Tejas:
Below you will find this game with the comments by Beata, as well as the pgn a little below that. You can find the full comments in the 91st chess informator.
From February 22-25, 2010, in South Carolina, USA a very interesting Sicilian theme match (Dragon, Scheveningen, Najdorf or Sveshnikov) is played between Judit Polgar and Gregory Kaidanov. You can find the photos of the match here. After 3 games Kaidanov is in the lead with 2 to 1. But in the second game Judit won a nice game in the Dragon. Here it is:
The FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess (WOM) will be organizing in March 2010 several goodwill lectures and simultaneous exhibitions: in San Juan – Puerto Rico; in Guayaquil – Ecuador; and in Detroit – United States to help promote chess among female chess players.
The events will be given by WGM Martha Fierro, reigning Women Continental Champion and Secretary of the WOM. The events arefree, Martha is donating her time to promote chess.
I am thankful to Martha for this beautiful initiative, if every woman chess champion would work as she does for the promotion of chess, it would be great! So if you're a woman champion, try to follow her example, at least once in awhile. And if you're a chess fan in the locations visited by Martha, go and visit her and give her your support!
Planned events:
Puerto Rico:
March 9, 2010 - Two days full training sessions with young talent CM Danitza Vasquez (10 years old)
March 11, 2010 - Simultaneous Exhibition at the Club de Ajedrez Guaynabo
Ecuador:
March 16-17, 2010 - Various visits to schools to give an impulse to girls to play chess
March 18, 2010 Lecture at the Federacion Deportiva Del Guayas
March 19, 2010 Simultaneous Exhibition at the Federacion Deportiva Del Guayas
United States:
March 23, 2010 Lecture for girls, Detroit (exact place to be confirmed)
March 24, 2010 Simultaneous Exhibition, Detroit (exact place to be confirmed)
The FIDE Commission for women’s chess thinks that these good-will events will encourage the participants to increase their interest in chess and will play an important role in promoting chess in general and women’s chess in particular in the world.
The WOM is working on organizing different good-will events around the world every year, if you think your federation or local club who are doing a lot for chess but need an additional push to make chess even more popular, might be interested in hosting a FIDE Goodwill event, let us know by sending an email to Alexandra or to Martha.
It's with pleasure that I republish the poem I wrote when I was 15 years old, with the beautiful illustration above by Mister M, whom I thank wholeheartedly!
Those were beautiful years growing up, with my family always close, chess keeping me busy and eternally learning, school in between tournaments, and the birth of love in my heart.
Speak To Me So That I Can See You
Speak to me, so that I can see you,
So that the Sun begins to shine more brightly,
So that I'm later not regretting
That time ran out before I told your story.
The story of the leaves that quietly whisper,
Of dew drops twinkling on morning grass,
Of wind that comes in Spring, and one that's strong,
Of February skies without a cloud,
Of happiness that comes at sunrise,
As those first rays of lilac turn to red.
And what is happiness? We all say "happiness" so often…
So much about it can be said.
One day, it will arrive without a warning
And change the way your eyes perceive this world.
You'll see the world in fairy tales enclosed,
You'll see it wrapped in tender, rosy Spring.
And then within that Spring, whose entrance will be sudden,
With ringing laughter, you will outpour your love,
And as around the snow your scatter cherry roses,
A burning fire will ignite in people's hearts.
Speak to me so that I can see you.
So that I always feel this thrilling passion,
This gust of freshest wind that came upon me roughly.
Week-ends normally are very quiet, I receive fewer emails and phone calls than usual and I can dedicate myself to do some fun new things.
On Saturday I had my Spanish lesson. I'm learning Spanish since in April and in May I'm planning to visit Colombia again and Peru for the first time and I want to be able to understand and speak with people there. It's great to learn a new language, in a sense it's like learning to play chess, new words and expressions are like chess moves and combinations.
My lesson was in Bayside in Miami, outside in the patio of a coffee shop. During my lesson I noticed a man sitting at a chess board, playing some moves on his own. He looked sad not to have any partner to play with.
After my lesson I went over to him and offered to play a game with him. He asked me if I knew how to play chess, and I said "Well, a little" ;-)
He agreed to play and I suppose was surprised that "a girl" was giving him trouble, at the end of the game he was very disappointed to lose. He was wondering how to tell his friends that he had lost against a girl. So I told him that I'm the women's world champion and he didn't look that sad any more after that!
A little tricky from my side, was it not? :-)
On Sunday I took part in another 5K race, this time in Miami Beach. It's such a great feeling and atmosphere to start your day with a run on Ocean Drive with several hundreds more people. This time I improved my time and finished the run in 22:01 which is in 37 seconds better than last Sunday. I'll write more about my race with photos in a future post very soon.
How fast do you run a 5K? Or you have other favorite distances or sports to do?
I am addressing this post to all of you out there who love chess, who have ever played chess, or written about chess in any way or form. Yes, that's you, reading these lines!
Nowadays the bounds and methods of journalism have grown considerably. According to Wikipedia,
Journalism is the craft of conveying news, descriptive material and opinion via a widening spectrum of media. These include newspapers, magazines, radio and television, the internet and even, more recently, the mobile phone.
I love the word "widening"! That means that any of you, who have ever written about chess in any medium, not only in the printed media, such as books, magazines, and newspapers, but also in new technologies, such as video (video podcasts, YouTube, video sharing sites), audio (songs, audio podcasts), photographs (photography sites), blogs, home pages, social sites (Twitter, Facebook) are journalists in some way, and at the very front of chess promotion! Yes, again, I'm speaking about YOU reading this post!
It's now possible from one's cell phone to update one's blog or Twitter account in seconds and that's one of the fastest way to relay or receive information. I read "tweets" every day from chess enthusiasts around the world with the freshest chess news. Today chess lovers can find out in real time how their chess heroes are playing, watch their games, and see tournament results tables. Even webcams are often installed in chess tournament halls, it makes you feel you're right there with the players, all this is journalism of the 21st century, and we are all part of it!
I thank every single one of you who has ever created any such kind of chess journalism. You are making the game cooler, younger, more alive! I want you all to join the CJA! But let me first start with the beginning.
I first become acquainted with the CJA thanks to its president, Jerry Hanken, who came to me in August of 2004 at the US Open in Fort Lauderdale and introduced me to the organization he cared so much about, the CJA. He told me all the benefits of being a member, and how I could not afford not to be a member. Jerry and I even played in that 2004 US Open Blitz tournament (Nakamura won the tournament, I came in second), and gave me a real fight in his favorite English opening. I immediately then joined the CJA, and since then have always been proud to be a member.
When Jerry invited me to become Vice-President of the CJA 2 years ago, he told me not to worry, as long as he's around, I won't have to do much. Jerry called me often to discuss new articles (read his article about me) and work went on as usual. He was very strong in his opinions, and always faithful to putting chess #1 in all his decisions. Suddenly the unthinkable happened, on October 1, 2009, I got the sad news that Jerry passed away, from complications of diabetes (read USCF post and a blog post). I had just spoken to him while he was in the hospital some days earlier and he was in good spirits, hoping to go home soon. In memory of Jerry Hanken, I will be holding high the torch for the CJA, to help it prosper and to continue to promote chess, with your help!
The CJA stands for "The Chess Journalists of America", but I don't want you to think it's limited depending on where you live, this is truly a worldwide association, and I intend to do my best to help promote it to the whole chess world.
One of the very best features of the CJA is its fantastic yearly AWARDS PROGRAM. One of the main goals I have as President of the CJA is to recognize any of you who really do something to promote chess, in any positive, original way you do so.
There are close to 20 awards categories in the Awards Program, such as (I use the 2009 categories, these may change a little for 2010):
• Chess Journalist of the Year
• Best Chess Column
• Best Achievement in Correspondence Chess
• Best Chess Art
• Best Chess Photograph
• Best Tournament Report
• Best Regular Newspaper Column
• Best Chess Web Site
• Best Historical Article
• Best Interview
• Best Editorial
• Best Review
• Best Analysis
• Best Instructive Lesson
• Best Humorous Contribution
• Special Recognition Award
I will gladly consider other categories upon request, due to new technologies, such as best Chess Podcast, best Chess YouTube Channel, best Chess Tweet, best chess poem, best chess iPhone app, best chess playing site, best live chess viewer, or any other you can think of. This will be difficult for the judges, but I will do my best to help. Feel free to add any comments to this post if you have any suggestions.
The CJA Awards are very prestigious. The winners get recognized officially with a beautiful certificate, of course also on the web, and in the most widely circulated chess magazine in the world, Chess Life (both printed and online versions). I have the honor of having won the 2009 "Chess Journalist of the Year" award, succeeding eminent chess journalists Macauley Peterson (2008), Mig Greengard (2007), Peter Tamburro (2006), Frisco del Rosario (2005), Andrew Soltis (2004), Fred Wilson (2003), Yasser Seirawan (2002), Hanon Russell (2001), Al Lawrence (2000). Don't you want to try to be the next "Journalist of the Year"?
Before becoming CJA President, I have applied for several awards, and have won "Best Chess Art" (see my chess comic on the cover of the CJA Magazine #130), "Best Chess Video or Podcast" (for my Chess Killer Tips free video podcast, "Best Deep Analysis" (for my game Huss-Kosteniuk, which I commented in a magazine and also on video), so I'm sure you can also apply for an award, and get recognized for what you do for chess.
This should be plenty to convince you to become CJA members. The good news is that the cost to become a CJA member (and also get the quartely CJA magazine) at this time is only $10 for the USA and $15 for any other place in the world! That's a very low price for all the benefits you get from being with equally minded colleagues.
To make it easier for people to sign up to the CJA or renew their memberships, there are now additional options, perfect for people outside the USA who don't find it convenient to send a check.
a) Send a check made for $10 (USA) or $15 (outside USA) made out to CJA, c/o Randy Hough, 1826 W. Garvey Ave. #5, Alhambra, CA 91803, USA
b) Pay by Paypal (Paypal does not require registration, any credit card should work) via my webshop, all monies received will be transferred to the CJA:
If you have any questions about the CJA and have any doubt about should you become a member or not, feel free to contact me by email, and I will gladly personally answer your questions. More information can also be found on the CJA web site.
Many people ask me what's the best way to improve at chess and how to prepare for chess tournaments. What should their training day look like, how much time spent on openings, middle game, etc.
I cannot stress enough how important physical preparation is before chess tournaments. Chess competition is tough, requires many hours spent at the chess board, with maximum concentration. You need all your strength and nerves to be in top form. Nothing will prepare you better than being in best physical form. All you need for that is to do some kind of sport regularly, and keep in mind that watching sports on TV, even the Olympics does not count! ;-)
I try to start every day with a 5K run. Above you can see me at the Valentine 5K run from last week, where I ran in 22:38 minutes (my record is just over 21 minutes a couple years ago).
As for chess training, I recommend solving a lot of chess middle game puzzles, to bring up to speed your tactical skills. Remember chess is a game where "pattern recognition" is key, so solving many puzzles really helps, especially to be sharp right before competition. Don't concentrate too much on the openings, as in my opinion the only goal of the opening is to enter a "playable" middle game, and all you need for that is to follow simple chess opening principles. It's in the middle game where you can show you superiority over your opponent, by outplaying him or her, by putting your pieces on better squares, by managing a nice King-side attack for example. Studying the end game is also very important, so that you will know when you can exchange pieces to reach a winning endgame, and if you reach one such "winning" endgame, to win it with certainty.
So good luck in your chess preparation, but remember to go out and do some sports, it will help your chess, I guarantee it!
I found out today from the FIDE site that Nalchik will host the Women's Grand Prix in Nalchik, from April 25 to May 8, 2010.
The final dates for the event in Nalchik are 25 April (arrival) to 8 May (departure) 2010. For further information concerning visas and air tickets, the participants should contact the local organising committee.
The preliminary list of participants for Nalchik is as follows:
Koneru, Humpy
Yifan, Hou
Cramling, Pia
Dzagnidze, Nana
Xue, Zhao
Kosintseva, Tatiana
Chen, Zhu
Danielian, Elina
Batkhuyag, Munguntuul
Yildiz, Betul
Mrktchian, Lilit
Kovanova, Baira
The following women's Grand Prix are planned as follows:
The 4th Grand Prix will take place in Jermuk, Armenia, on 23rd June – 6th July 2010
The 5th Grand Prix will take place in Ulanbaatar, Mongolia, on 29 July - 12 August 2010
The 6th Grand Prix will take place in Santiago, Chile, on 27th October – 9th November 2010
I am marking my calendar and will follow the next Grand Prix with great interest. Expect some "tweets" from me on a regular basis on my Twitter page.
As usual once a month IM Maxim Notkin from the Russian professional chess site www.chesspro.ru sent me the best 24 chess games of January (you can find a photo of Maxim and my younger sister Oxana here). I am one of the judges, and I need to vote for the best 10 among them and I'm happy to announce that I decided to include a very nice win by the lady from India WGM Swaminathan Soumya in the top 10.
Below you will find 3 positions from that beautiful game and a playable applet to replay the game. The game is a Sicilian Defense with a nice attack by white, lots of sacrifices, nice tactics and a great finish. I am sure you will enjoy it!
Every chess tournament, even the most exciting one has its end. And often only a photo finish or some kind of tie-breaks can name the winners of an event. The A1 Aeroflot chess tournament had an only winner - the vietnamese GM Le, Quang Liem, who finished in clear first place with 7 out of 9.
However, there was a tie between the best ladies players. Hou Yifan, Tatiana and Nadezhda Kosintseva all finished with 4 out of 9, which is a very respectful result in this strong tournament.
The full standings of the A1 tournament can be found here. Below is an example of the Hou Yifan win over the russian GM Stanislav Novikov. Hou Yifan is playing Black and it's her turn to move. White was doing OK until the last move where Novikov played 35. Bb2??, trying to exchange the strong dark-squared bishop on d4
Hou Yifan continued the game with 35. ... Re5! and White realised that there is no way to keep this bishop on b2 protected. The game continued for a few more moves 36.Qd3 Qd5+ 37.Kh3 Bxb2 38.Qc2 Ba3 39.f6+ Qe4 40.Qxe4+ and White resigned.
Rxe4 41.Ra1 Bb4 42.f7 Re5 0-1
In the A2 tournament Evgenia Ovod and Ekaterina Kovalevskaya finished the tournament with 5 out of 9, the results can be seen here.
In the B tournament Gulnar Mammadova shared the first place overall with 7 out of 9. The full standings can be found here.
In the C tournament, Alexandra Nikolaeva took bronze overall with 7 out of 9. The full table is here.
Melia Salome continued her nice tournament stroke. After winning the Women's Georgian Championship and sharing the first place in the Moscow open, she now won another strong women's tournament in Romania. She took 6 points out of 9 and was followed by Maria Muzychuk with 5,5 and Corina Peptan with 5 points. The full table can be found here.
In 2 weeks the European Championships 2010 for men and women will start in Rijeka, Croatia. I'm sure we will witness for exciting chess over there. So stay tuned!
I just found out from the 9Queens web site that Elizabeth Vicary will be the host of a free chess workshop in Tucson on Saturday February 20.
Here is the announcement:
Tucson chess players, coaches, parents, teachers and enthusiasts come by Lineweaver Elementary School on Saturday February 20 to meet Elizabeth Vicary- nationally renowned chess teacher from IS 318 Brooklyn and star of the upcoming documentary Chess Movie. Beginning at 12 noon Elizabeth will answer questions and provide information on how to create and sustain your own chess club, regardless of your skill level or experience. For more information email jhoffman@9queens.org.
World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and the organizers of the Space Coast Open Chess Festival jointly announced today that Grandmaster and reigning Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk will play a 50-board simultaneous exhibition at the 17th Space Coast Open (SCO) Chess Festival (Indialantic, FL, April 23-25, 2010).
World Champion Kosteniuk’s simul begins at 8 AM on Saturday, April 24 at the Crowne Plaza Melbourne Oceanfront Resort and Spa, Indialantic, FL. The entry fee is $40. The event is free for spectators. Challengers can register on-line now for the SCO and for a board at the simul via the event website, http://sco2010.eventbrite.com.
A portion of the boards for the simul will be reserved for local students. The remaining reservations will be sold on a first come, first serve basis. GM Kosteniuk’s exhibition’s often sell out quickly, so don't wait! GM Kosteniuk will also sign her books at the event including her latest, Diary of a Chess Queen.
In announcing GM Kosteniuk’s appearance and her simultaneous exhibition at the Space Coast Open, Space Coast Chess Foundation President, Dr. Peter Koretsky said, “We are thrilled to have World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk at the Space Coast Open Chess Festival. The chess world could not ask for a more charismatic World Champion than Alexandra. She is an energetic promoter of chess and its many positive aspects, and serves as an outstanding role model for our young players. For many of our local scholastics players this will be the only time they have an opportunity to both meet and play against a reigning World Champion. We are especially honored as Alexandra will be celebrating her 26th birthday during our festival weekend. The Space Coast Chess Foundation looks forward to partnering with Alexandra and her family to create an unforgettable experience for all who participate.”
About Alexandra Kosteniuk
Alexandra Kosteniuk is the 12th Women’s World Chess Champion. She learned to play chess at the age of five after being taught by her father. She earned the Women Grandmaster title in 1998 and the men’s Grandmaster title in 2004. She became the World Champion by winning a series of matches at the Women’s World Championship held in Nalchik, Russia in 2008.
Alexandra promotes chess by traveling around the world giving simultaneous exhibitions in front of large crowds. Her goal is to show the world that “chess is cool”. Alexandra has combined her promotion of chess with fashion modeling and also played a part in a movie. She is also a prolific and popular chess journalist (books, DVDs and web) and in 2009 she was named the Chess Journalist of the Year by the Chess Journalists of America. For more information about Alexandra, see www.kosteniuk.com and www.chessblog.com.
About the 17th Space Coast Open and the Space Coast Chess Foundation
The Space Coast Open is sponsored by the Space Coast Chess Foundation and is Brevard County’s longest running chess tournament. The 17th Space Coast Open is open to all and is offering projected prize fund of $10,000. It will be held at the Crowne Plaza Melbourne Oceanfront Resort and Spa, 2605 N. Hwy A1A, Indialantic, FL from April 23-25, 2010. The tournament schedule has been flexibly organized such that players may easily participate in both the tournament and the simultaneous exhibition. Details and entry information are available at http://sco2010.eventbrite.com.
The Space Coast Open is sponsored by the Space Coast Chess Foundation (SCCF), a community supported organization dedicated to the promotion of scholastic chess in Brevard County, FL. SCCF provides sponsorship for the Brevard County Scholastics Chess Grand Prix and provides free chess sets to Brevard County schools. SCCF also subsidizes needy scholastic chess players unable to afford Chess Festival events.
I have received a box of the most recent CHESS LIFE FOR KIDS Magazine from the United States Chess Federation (USCF) and have decided to give them away for free to chess loving kids!
The Chess Life for Kids magazine is 24-pages long, has lots of articles of interest to kids, chess puzzles, also a competition with prizes, and a list of chess tournaments of interest to kids.
So if you'd like to have one, just send me an email with your postal address and I will send it to you and to your kid absolutely for free!
UPDATE: Due to the 100's of requests I have received from all over the world in the last 12 hours, and due to high costs to mail the magazine abroad, the free magazine offer is for USA only, and for the rest of the world still free magazine but only with any order to compensate for high mailing costs. Thanks for your understanding! Offer valid while supplies last.
If you'd like to order at the same time something from my web shop I would be grateful to you, that will allow me to put it in the same envelope, but that's not at all obligatory, you can simply send me your address and I will send you the magazine absolutely free, with my autograph on the cover (yes you guessed it, it's me on the cover when I was a kid, on the left it's when I was 11 years old right right after a tournament in France, I was at the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, and on the right I was 7 years old, and I was playing in the Moscow youth championship. That tournament got me my first title: Moscow champion among girls Under-8 :-)
I just heard from the company that manufactures my DVD that my new DVD "Chess Blitz Fever" will be ready in less than 4 weeks. So before it comes out, I offer free shipping to anybody who orders it, regardless of where it has to be shipped, from Alaska to Tumbuktu. I will ship the DVD to you the day it comes out.
The DVD has a whole section of useful tips on how to better play blitz chess, and is followed by the dual screen presentation of my 8 best wins at the recent World Blitz championship in Moscow, against (the linked names go to YouTube samples on my channel):
There is more than 2 hours of video on the DVD, and I guarantee it is both entertaining and instructive. I am very happy about how the DVD came out, the quality is the best I have ever done, and I hope you will like it! You will become a better chess player after watching my DVD!
You may want also to buy my new book "Diary of a Chess Queen", and I will write a personal autograph for you or your loved one. This book contains not only 64 of my career best games, but also is the story of how I started to play chess 20 years ago and how it led to my becoming the 12th women's world chess champion.
As I was giving a chess lesson today to a young promising kid, I thought back at the wonderful times when I was growing up, and my Dad was teaching chess to me.
The very nice collage above, made by Mister-M, helped me to think back and to remember what it was like. My Dad taught me to play chess when I was five, in 1989, and he would show me chess tricks daily, I loved them so much. At the time our family lived in Moscow, and my Dad would take me to parks to play chess with other kids and with grown-ups. Even though Russia was going through very hard times, my parents did everything so I would not notice, and I continued enjoying learning chess. On the top right of the collage you see me at 7 years old during the Moscow youth championship, when I earned my first title of Moscow champion Under-10.
If you have children, give them the gift of chess. I promise you will not regret it, and chess will help them in their future life, that's for sure! Chess teaches to concentrate, it shows the value of hard work, and it develops memory and problem solving skills.
The earlier one starts to play chess the better, so don't waste a moment - go and teach your loved ones chess!
Very best wishes to you all on this Valentine's Day!
And thanks to Mister-M for the beautiful collage he created!
To celebrate St. Valentine's Day I invite you to solve the following 6 puzzles which are the Puzzle Contest of one of the biggest Russian Daily Newspaper "Izvestia". This competition started on January 12 and consists of 3 rounds of 2 puzzles each. Right now is the final tour so you still have a chance to send the solutions of the two last puzzles till tomorrow to sport@izvestia.ru or by post to Russia, Moscow, 127 994, Tverskaia St., 18-1 mark "Chess Competition" on your envelope, but email will arrive faster for sure :-) For those of you who know Russian, here are the 3 links to the articles of this competition: Round 1, Round 2, Round 3. You will be able to find the solutions to the first 4 puzzles in these articles.
Above 1. Ruhlis, 1968. White to start and checkmate in 2 moves
Above 2. Zepler, 1930 White to move and checkmate in 3 moves
Above 3. Khavel, 1912. White to move and checkmate in 3 moves
Above 4. Vladimirov, 2005. White to move and checkmate in 4.
Above 5. Kosteniuk, 2009. White to move and make a draw.
Above 6. White to move and win.
I hope you will enjoy solving those puzzles. I will post the solutions to all puzzles before the end of February.
From February 9 to February 18, 2010 the very strong Aeroflot-open is taking place. In the A1 tournament, where the rating floor for participation is 2550, there are 5 strong chess ladies playing.
After 6 rounds, the standings for the women players are as follows (current rank; name; country; points; rating; perfomance):
49. Kosintseva, Tatiana RUS 2,5 2515 2635
59. Hou Yifan CHN 2,0 2590 2534
64. Kosintseva, Nadezhda RUS 2,0 2533 2580
66. Sebag, Marie FRA 2,0 2510 2540
67. Javakhishvili, Lela GEO 2,0 2493 2538
In the A2 tournament, where the rating floor is 2399, there are 8 ladies chess players:
21. Harika, Dronavalli IND 3,0 2471 2505
40. Ovod, Evgenija RUS 2,5 2415 2477
41. Savina Anastasia RUS 2,5 2407 25o3
47. Romanko Maria RUS 2,0 2433 2392
48. Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina RUS 2,0 2428 2386
58. Bodnaruk, Anastasia RUS 1,5 2372 2306
65. Pourkashiyan, Atousa IRI 1,0 2306 2193
66. Karavade, Eesha IND 0,5 2405 2061
In the B tournament, which is for chess players with a rating less than 2400 but higher than 2199, there are 6 ladies playing. Mammadova, Gulnar from Azerbaijan (2221) has 5 points out of 6, sharing the first place in the group and is showing a performance of 2600.
In the C tournament which is for players with a rating of 2200 or lower, there are 3 ladies playing and all of them have 4 out of 6 at the moment.
I wish all ladies success in these strong mixed tournaments, let us show that women's chess is exciting, and getting stronger every day!
You see them here also illustrated by Mister-M, whom I thank whole-heartedly!
A Candle's Dream
In the deep dark of night, a candle was crying. She shone through the dusk, while ardently trying With tears and with work, to bring back the brightness of day. She was melting, but time never goes in the opposite way. It was not her fate to see morning light. It was not her fate to make day out of night. Yet still, she warmed the darkness with her passionate gleam, While burning down, she held the faith in a beautiful dream.
A Bush
In a dark forest that neither Sun nor light ever visit,
A small bush was growing, wrapped in mist.
Like a free bird, he was of awesome beauty
Like a tender flower, by Spring he was caressed.
He was lonely and lived in this world by himself,
Spreading his warmth through the dusk of the forest.
He did not live long in this gloomy captivity,
And carried with him all of his thoughts when he left.
While I was traveling all around Europe many interesting women's events have been played. The national championships in Georgia, Armenia and Romania have been finished during January. The women's tournament of the Moscow open was very strong, as well as women showed many great results in strong open and closed tournaments.
Anna Muzychuk finished the Corus B tournament with a respectful 5,5 out of 13 in a very strong field. The final standings of the B-tournament can be seen here.
Salome Melia became the Georgian champion 2010 with a nice result - 10 out of 13, followed by Nino Khurtsidze (9,5 points) and Maia Lomineishvili (8,5 points). The final table can be seenhere.
Anahit Kharatyan is the Armenian champion 2010. She took 6 points out of 9 and the clear first place. The full table is here.
Elena-Luminita Cosma is the new Romanian champion 2010. She shared the first place with 7 points out of 9 with Iozefina Paulet but was better on tie-breaks. The bronze medal with 6,5 points out of 9 won Cristina-Adelina Foisor. The final standings can be seen here.
The game between Valentina Gunina and Anastasia Bodnaruk from the Russian Superfinal 2009 was voted among the best 10 games of December on the Russian web-site www.chesspro.ru . You might have already seen this game with my comments on one of the previous posts, here.
Only the photo-finish was able to determine the winners of the exciting Moscow-open. Before the last round Zhao Xue was leading the event with 7 points out of 8 and was followed by 3 strong chess-players - Valentina Gunina, Salome Melia and Nazi Paikidze. Salome Melia with the white pieces was able to win against Zhao Xue, while Nazi Paikidze won also with white against Gunina. So Melia and Paikidze shared the first place with 7,5 out of 9 but the tie-break was better for Nazi Paikidze who became the winner of the Moscow-open 2010. The final table can be seen here.
From February 9 to February 18, 2010 the very strong Aeroflot-open takes place. There are 5 ladies who decided to take part in the strongest A1 tournament: the Kosintseva's sisters, Hou Yifan, Lela Javakhishvili and Marie Sebag. After 3 rounds Nadezhda and Tatiana both have 2 points out of 3, winning in the first round and making 2 draws in the 2nd and 3rd round.
From February 10 to February 18 in Bucarest, Romania a strong women's closed tournament takes place. The participants are: Beta Khotenashvili (Georgia, 2461), Maria Muzychuk (Ukraine, 2447), Cristina Foisor (Romania, 2440), Eva Repkova (Slovakia, 2434), Salome Melia (Georgia, 2431), Corina Peptan (Romania, 2411), Irina Turova (Russia, 2386), Anita Gara (Hungary, 2370), Szidonia Vajda (Hungary, 2369) and the new Romanian champion 2010 Elena-Luminita Cosma (2332). The official web-site is here.
Even though we are right now in the middle of winter, chess battles are heating all around the world. Don't you think it's because chess should be named a winter olympic sport? ;) By the way,the Winter Olympic Games is starting tomorrow in Vancouver, Canada. What are your favorite winter sports (beside chess, of course) and what are the athletes and countries you will be routing for?
“ ALEXANDRA KOSTENIUK, WOMEN’S WORLD CHESS CHAMPION, JOINS FORCES WITH CHESS ATTACK”
The reigning Women’s Chess World Champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk, is now part of the Chess Attack team. By taking a stake in the Norwegian company Yes Games AS she becomes part owner and brand ambassador for Chess Attack.
Chess Attack is an exciting innovation for the chess and gaming community. It is a faster and more intense version of the classic game — perfectly suited the fast paced, time-poor world we all live in today. With a smaller board and fewer pieces, each game cuts straight to the battle. Chess can now be played more often, in more places by more people.
As well as Chess Attack, Yes Games AS is ready to launch a series of Attack games which share the idea — ‘Less board, more battle’.
Quotes
Werner Kling, CEO, Yes Games AS :
”Chess Attack has a potential global market of 600 million players. Alexandra Kosteniuk will be an important partner and ambassador for our global launch, and hugely motivating for its success in the World”.
Alexandra Kosteniuk, Women’s Chess World Champion :
”I am proud to be a part owner of Yes Games AS and an ambassador to Chess Attack. I was excited to find out about the new game "Chess Attack", which in my opinion is perfect for both grown ups and kids and greatly adapted to modern times. Chess Attack offers portability, innovation and shorter playing times, while retaining all the values of chess, such as the same pieces being used, and same playing rules. Chess Attack stimulates thought, is easy to learn, so even kids can start playing it minutes after they take it out of the box”.
Notes for Editors
The Chess Attack board comprises 30 squares with 10 pieces per player — 5 pawns, 1 knight, 1 rook, 1 bishop, 1 queen, 1 king.
Advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty (UK) is a 10% shareholder in Yes Games AS.
Yes Games AS will launch Chess Attack globally as a board game and on social networks and smart phone platforms.
Contact — For further information, quotes and images :
As you may know, starting from this year the FIDE commission for women's chess will award annually the best women's player of the preceding year with the Caissa Award. The Classical Jewelry House "Lobortas" gladly offered to be a sponsor of this event and create a very special and unique statuette. But after long discussion we decided to run a special statuette contest to give a chance to all the fans of women's chess to offer their ideas for creating the most beautiful statuette ever. That's why today the FIDE commission for women's chess and the Classical Jewelry House "Lobortas" is happy to announce the "Search for Perfection" contest:
FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess and the Classical Jewelry House “Lobortas” are glad to invite talented sculptors, artists and just every creative person who are not indifferent to chess in general and women’s chess in particular to take part in their search for the perfect award statuette for the best women’s chess player of the year. From now on, once a year, during a special award ceremony the best women’s chess player of the preceding year will be awarded with such a statuette and a prize. We invite you to send your projects of this statuette to the official jury (Igor Lobortas, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Nona Gaprindashvili) to oscar@lobortas.com and cc to: alexandra@kosteniuk.com
Keep in mind that the height of the cup shall not be more than 60 cm (23 inches) and the radius of the bottom of the statuette shall be not more than 10 cm (3.9 inches).
The Jury gives themselves the right to change and correct all the proposals when preparing the statuette. The winner of this “Search for Perfection” competition will be awarded with a special jewelry adornment from the Classical Jewelry House “Lobortas” and will be invited to take part in the award ceremony which will take place during the Women’s World Blitz Chess Championship 2010 on September 18 in Moscow, Russia, as the winner of the design competition.
GENERAL RULES & LIMITATIONS: By entering, you represent that: (i) your entry is your own original work; and (ii) you own or have the rights to convey any and all right and title in any material submitted as part of your entry into the Contest. By entering, you grant to the Organizers a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to edit, publish, promote, republish at any time in the future and otherwise use your submission, along with your name and likeness, in any and all media for any purpose, without further permission, notice or compensation (except where prohibited by law). By participating in the Contest, you agree to release the Organizers and its parent companies, affiliates, subsidiaries, employees, directors, officers, and agents from any and all liability, claims or actions of any kind whatsoever for injuries, damages or losses to persons and property which may be sustained in connection with the receipt, ownership, possession, use, or misuse of any prize. The organizers reserve the right to amend these official rules and to permanently disqualify from the Contest any person it believes has intentionally violated these official rules.
We are glad to present to you the last episode of Chess TV. You can also watch the original source of the program. The program features Alexandra Kosteniuk's game against Anand and much more chess news, including interesting information about Tigran Petrosian and his match against Boris Spassky.
Before going to bed, I wanted to share with you the full results just published of today's French Blitz Championship, in which I participated. I did 9.5 out of 13, and shared 5th-8th spot, with a performance of 2598 ELO.
Make sure to have a look at my game of the last round against Anatoly Vaisser (that I posted a couple hours ago, below), it's a typical example of an attack when the Kings have castled on different sides, with a nice ending sacrifice.
Le combat a été âpre et avec 11 points sur 13, il devance le GMI Allemand Georg MEIER, et le champion de France de parties rapides, Andrei SHCHEKACHEV.
La Championne du Monde Alexandra KOSTENIUK partage la 5ème place. 159 participants à l'open des AS.
As you all know last night I gave a chess simul in Oslo, Norway. Well I could not miss playing in a blitz tournament, so I got up at 4 AM, took the first flight Oslo - Paris, and played today in the French Blitz Championship!
I will write a little more later, but let me tell you my result was not so bad, 9.5 out of 13, and I ended up in 8th place, with a performance of 2598. I finished with a very nice win against GM Vaisser, here it is:
I hope you liked the moves 26. Nxe6 and 27. Bb6 :-) At the end when Anatoly resigned I can play 29.Bxg6 and due to the threat of mate on f7, Black has to play Bd5 or Be8 but that loses his Queen on b6.
I'm packing my suitcase now since tomorrow early morning I will fly from Oslo to Paris.
Today was another day for me in the capital of Norway, Oslo, which I enjoyed very much. We started the day by going to the Viking ship musem. You can see me in this museum on the photo above.
Then we went up the Holmenkollen, a large ski-jump which hosted many international competitions including the VI Winter Olympics in 1952.
Afterwards we had lunch in the cosy TheaterCafeen and finally at 6 PM I faced 12 young players in a clock-simul in one of the oldest chess club of Norway - Schakselskap which turned 126 years old on February 4.
You can find the list of my opponents on the official web-site of the club, here. The final score of the simul was +11=1-0.
I should say that I'm very happy about my short visit to Norway and I want to thank Tom Ruud and Werner Kling for inviting me to Oslo and organizing this trip. I liked it very much and am looking forward to coming to Norway again!
Just before running to my simul today in Oslo, I wanted to post the wonderful photoshop paintings by Mister M. (whom I met on Twitter) that he sent me today!
Amazing! I like all 3 of them, please tell me which one you like best.
To my last post trip trivia I received many answers ranging from Paris to Cuba, Miami, Rome, even Yekaterinburg! Well, the truth is that I'm in Oslo, Norway right now.
Just last night I was having dinner during the closing ceremony of the Gibraltar tournament, and now I'm writing this post from the wonderful Grand Hotel of Oslo where Barack Obama was staying when he got the Nobel prize last year.
Here is how the hotel looks inside. More like a museum, isn't it?:
I was invited to Oslo for several reasons and tonight I had a very successful meeting, the agreement of which I will let you know tomorrow.
By the way I also had another meeting with the President of the Norwegian Chess Federation Joran Aulin-Jansson. Norway is bidding to host the 2014 Chess Olympiad in Tromso and this September in Khanty-Mansiysk during the Chess Olympiad 2010 we will find out the name of the winner. I hope that Norway will win.
Here are two on-line articles that just came out tonight about my visit to Oslo: here and here, they are in Norwegian but you can use google translator which works very nice (translation of the first and second article). Tomorrow I will have one more day in Oslo and will give a simul to the local kids and on Sunday I will be going back to Paris... to play in the French Blitz Championships!
By the way, the link to my YouTube video with game with Magnus Carlsen is here, in the unlikely case you haven't already seen it ;-)
I'm on my way today from Gibraltar to... (secret I'll tell you very soon), and while I'm in the airport waiting room I wanted to share with you the Photoshop gifts from Mister-M, my Twitter follower.
Do you like them? I like most the one I put at the top of this post, nice contrast, beautiful frame, well chosen font. I guess it represents the fire that can go on a chess board during the heat of the battle, right?
Natalia Zhukova and Michael Adams topped their categories
The Gibraltar Gibtelecom Chess Masters has its 2010 winners!
In the overall category, 9 (male) players end the tournament with 7.5 out of 10, but the winner after tie-break is Michael Adams, congratulations to Michael for a deserved win!
Right after that group, in the 7 points group are the two top women of this competition, Natalia Zhukova and Humpy Koneru. Natalia gets the top women's prize thanks to her higher performance score, of 2686, quite impressive! My best wishes go to both ladies who have performances above 2650!
I shared the third women's prize, together with 10 other women, all with 6.5 out of 10, just one half point behind the top ladies, and 1 point behind the overall winners (ranking in order of performance):
Antoaneta Stefanova
Pia Cramling
Lela Javakhishvili
Alexandra Kosteniuk
Nana Dzagnidze
Dronavalli Harika
Viktorija Cmilyte
Deysi Cori
Eesha Karavade
Dana Reizniece
Joanna Dworakowska
Then come the group with 6.0/10:
Irina Krush
Jovanka Houska
Katrine Tjolsen
With 5.5/10:
Anna Zatonskih
Tania Sadchev
Elena Sedina
Anna Zozulia
Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant
Monica Calzetta
With 5.0/10:
Kruttika Nadig
Iva Videnova
Maria Schoene
4.5: Marina Martsynovskaya
4.0: Szilvia Lochte
3.5: Ingrid Carlsen
3.0: Erie Hansen
2.5: Caroline Jacobsen
2.0: Lovinia Chidi
1.5: Nadja Reci
0.0: Victoria Agdestein
0.0: Margrethe Grodas
Thanks to the organizer for a wonderful hard-fought tournament, which I am sure will keep attracting in the next years the strongest women of the planet!
My last game was very hard fought, but after 6.5 hours I finally managed to win it, it's nice to finish a tournament on a positive note! :-)
There are only two rounds to go in Gibraltar, and while there is only 1 overall male tournament leader with 6.5/8 (GM Jan Gustafsson 2627) there are several ladies not far behind. All will be decided in the last two rounds, and we wish the best to all the lady chess players participating:
I just found out on the Europe-Echecs.com, that on January 30, 2010 Kateryna Lahno became a chess mom! She gave birth to a baby boy - Alexander. I heartfully congratulate Kateryna and her husband Robert Fontaine with the birth of their baby and wish them love and happiness for their family!
I decided to make a post since it's been a while I haven't updated my blog myself. That's why I have special photos of the Gibraltar monkeys playing chess!
As for the tournament itself, for the moment 7 rounds of Gibraltar have been played and the final three rounds promise to be very exciting since the big winners for the men's and women's top prizes will be decided in these rounds.
After 7 rounds, Natalia Zhukova who drew today playing Black against Michael Adams and Humpy Koneru who beat today Guliyev are in the lead with 5.5 points out of 7. I cannot say anything good about my tournament as of yet, there are 3 more rounds to go and I hope that I will finish the tournament on a good note.
But now I would like to tell you about the beautiful sightseeing tour I went on today. The organizers were kind to invite me and some other players for a tour, Anna Zatonskih, Gata Kamsky, Irina Krush and Zeljka Malobabic. We went to see the most southern point of Gibraltar, from where one can see Morocco (which is in Africa). We also went down to the fascinating St. Michael's Cave and went all the way up the Rock to meet the monkeys and to play some chess with them of course!:)
Some photos below are mine and some are Zeljka Malobabic of Monroi who was kind enough to give them to me.
Nice encounter
Analysing a game
Below you can see the Caleta hotel where most participants are staying and where the tournament takes place.
Another magnificent view of Gibraltar
Anna Zatonskih posing with Aloe
I will let you know how the tournament finished, but make sure to go to the official organizers web-site, here where you can find many more nice photos, pairings as well as the live game and live broadcast daily.
Congratulations to Natalia Zhukova, who was able to keep GM Michael Adams (2694) under control, with a nice draw on board 1 of the Gibraltar Chess Masters. You can see the game below:
Here is some more info we have been able to get about the team of Chess-TV:
The lack of interest for the game within the Swedish media resulted in the ChessTV-team creating a TV-show in their own way. Having no knowledge about TV-producing, filming or redactional work, the creators used qualities acquired from playing chess, such as strategical planning, logical thinking and hard work, knowing that if you only apply yourself enough, you can make anything happen.
The ChessTV-team consists of five siblings from Stockholm, Sweden, currently in the ages between 23 and 15. Adriana, Antonia and Amelia Krzymowska (23-19) and Alfred and Albert Krzymowski (17 and 15) created the idea and concept of the show.
Seizing the opportunities of their generation; with advanced computers, the Internet and digital cameras, they learned all of the technical and editorial aspects of producing a news show, and have done that ever since (They write the scripts, set the lights, adjust the sound, record the shows, edit the material, air and market ChessTV).
But ChessTV is in a constant process of evolution, and the team has since the start perfected a lot of details, making the show better and better for every episode. Not even now, with 282 produced episodes, the team considers the show “done”."
Note if by any chance the embedded video is in Swedish, or a new video has been placed on their main page, you can go directly HERE to see the English version of Episode 282.
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Best chess wishes to you! Alexandra Kosteniuk
Women's World Chess Champion
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