3rd Alexandra Kosteniuk Chess Cup for kids 2009

Hello everybody!

I just wanted to let you all know that on November 28 and 29, 2009 the third Alexandra Kosteniuk Chess Cup for Kids under 6 (yob - 2003 and younger) and under 8 (yob - 2001 and younger) will take place in Elista, Russia.


Elista is the capital of the republic of Kalmykia, a federal subject of the Russian Federation (Russia). It is located on the South of Russia, approximately 2,5 hours by plane from Moscow. Two very entertaining artciles about arriving to Elista and about Kalmykia with many photos can be found on chessbase.com, here and here.

Elista is a very beautiful and unique city. Many important chess tournaments such as the 33rd Chess Olympiad 1998, the world championship matches Karpov - Kamsky in 1996 and Kramnik - Topalov in 2006, Women's World Chess Championship in 2004, the FIDE Grand-Prix tournament in December 2008, many Russian Championships have been held in Elista.

The Alexandra Kosteniuk Chess Cup for Kids will be held in the City-Chess in Elista. You can have a look at the City-Chess and listen to the interview with Kirsan Ilymzhinov - the president of FIDE and of the Republic of Kalmykia, in Russian, here.

It will be a 8 rounds swiss system tournament with the time control of 25 minutes to each participant for one game. The regulations of the tournament (in Russian) can be found here.

For more information about the tournament you can write me an email, and I will gladly help you.

Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk
Women's World Chess Champion
www.chessblog.com

1st Alexandra Kosteniuk's USA CUP for KIDS

I'm glad to announce that the 1st Alexandra Kosteniuk's USA Chess Cup for kids that was held on July 11, 2009 at the Miami Chess Academy was a big success!

33 young players took part in this event. I thank all the participants and the owner of the Miami Chess Academy Blas Lugo for helping to create this special event. I hope to organize Alexandra Kosteniuk's USA Chess Cup for kids every year so many more kids can participate. All the participants of the Alexandra Kosteniuk's USA Chess Cup got prizes and medals. More than 1,000$ in prizes was awarded and no kid left without a medal and a prize.

Below is the list of the winners. It was a mixed tournament, that means that everybody played in one group and all the participants had a chance to win the Grand Prize.

The 1st Grand Prize was awarded to Robert Perez (USCF rating - 2124) who got 7 out of 7! The second Grand Prize was awarded to Jose Dias who took 5.5 points out of 7. The third Grand Prize with 5.0 points out of 7 was awarded to Jonathan Lau who is only 9 years old! The top girl of the tournament was Annaby Pozo with 5.0 out of 7, congratulations!

The 1st prize in the category U-14 was awarded to a 8-year old Henry Qi with 5.0 points out of 7. 2nd prize went to Lance Shkolnik with 5.0 points out of 7 and on the 3rd place in this category was Terry Song with 4 points. The top girl in this category was Juliana Piloto with 4 points out of 7.

The 1st prize in the category U-11 went to Sebastian Sosadiaz (4.5 points out of 7). Second prize was awarded to Matthew Solis with 4.5 points out of 7. And the third place in this category went to William Yang with 4.0 points out of 7. The top girl prize in this category was awarded to Erika Medina.

The 1st prize in the category U-8 was awarded to Juliana Piloto. 2nd prize was awarded to Dima Tertychnyi with 4.0 points. The 3rd prize went to Justin Landrove (4.0 points). The top girl in this category was Arisha Shtypel.

Congratulations to the winners and hope to see you next year!

Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk
Women's World Chess Champion
www.chessblog.com

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Alexandra Kosteniuk Chess Camp Session 3

The 3rd session of my chess camp is over, tomorrow the 1st Alexandra Kosteniuk's USA CHESS CUP for KIDS will take place. Here is some info about the tournament:

11 July 1st Alexandra Kosteniuk USA KIDS Chess cup tournament

Tournament location: Miami Chess Academy

5880 SW 8th St, West Miami, FL, 33144-5036 (305) 262-2700

5 Rounds Time Control: Game/25 minutes

Trophies: Top 3 individuals in each age group + 1 top girl in every age group.

4 age groups
Girls and Boys Under 18 – Born after July 11th, 1991
Girls and Boys Under 14 – Born after July 11th, 1995
Girls and Boys Under 11 – Born after July 11th 1998
Girls and Boys Under 8 – Born after July 11th 2001

Prizes: 1st - $200 in chess prizes + 1 private lesson with Alexandra, 2nd - $100; 3rd - $50 in chess prizes

Registration Saturday 11-11:50am. First round starts at 12pm.

After this tournament I will go for a deserved vacation to Disney World and then will start preparing for the US-open that will take place from August 1 till August 9, 2009 in Indianapolis, IN.

Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk
Women's World Chess Champion
www.chessblog.com

Women Chess Kaleidoscope

Various women's chess tournaments are taking place right now, or have just finished.

The Women's Ukranian Championship just finished. Tatjana Vasilevich and Doluhanova Evgenia shared first place, but Evgenia was better on tie-breaks.

The higher league of the Women's Russian Championship started today June 1 in Voronezh. Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (FIDE Elo rating 2450) is the elo-favorite of the tournament. Many young talented russian girls are playing as well. This tournament is the qualification for the Russian Women's Superfinal which is scheduled for December 2009. 5 top players at the end of the tournament will qualify for the Superfinal.

The Russian Championship among boys and girls under 8 just finished. It's amazing that today we have championships under 8! And probably many future GM's played in this event. Alexandra Obolentseva, a 7-year old girl became the Russian Champion among girls U-8. Last year Alexandra Obolentseva took part in my annual tournament "Alexandra Kosteniuk's Cup" that took place on November 29 and 30 in the Central Chess Club in Moscow and I even have a photo of her playing in my cup. I hope Alexandra will continue playing chess and working hard, I wish her all the best!

The final of the TOP 16 French teams took place in the Pyramides near Paris on May 31. Many strong female players took part in this event such as Almira Skripchenko, Inna Gaponenko, Sophie Milliet. The team of Evry (with Peter Svidler, Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Sophie Milliet and other strong players playing for this team) took first place.

Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk

Women's World Chess Champion

www.chessblog.com