Sofia and Belgrade in a friendly chess match on 100 boards

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hello everybody,

People from all walks of life playing chess!

This was a real fun event - Sofia and Belgrade competed in the first of its kind friendly chess mega tournament 'Match on 100 boards' – Bankya 2011, which finished with result of 51.5:48.5 points in favor of the hosts. The tournament was held on Saturday, in the town of Bankya (hotel “Bankya Palace”), and was officially opened by the mayor of Sofia, Yordanka Fandakova.

The event was attended by politicians, businessmen, celebrities, journalists and chess players from Sofia and Belgrade. The event was covered by many Bulgarian and Serbian media.

The tournament was attended also by the representatives of the male and female national chess team of Serbia. From Bulgarian side was distinguished the names of the European vice-champion and former World Champion GM Antoaneta Stefanova, GM Kiril Georgiev, GM Margarita Voiska and others. All participants in the match played in the game against their opponents in rate of play 25 minutes + 10 seconds for each move, starting from move one. “Match on 100 boards” is organised by the European Chess Union. The idea is the initiative to include consecutively and many other European capitals. You can read more at this link.

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Golden Tournament Organizer Award Winner 2010

Dear all!

I'm very glad to announce that during the last FIDE Presidential Board meeting, the Women's International 8th of March Tournament was awarded the title of the FIDE Golden Women's Tournament Organizer Award!

This tournament has a wonderful and long history, you can read more about it here.

According to the regulations of this award, the organizers of this event will receive a prize of $1000 which they should use for increasing the prize fund for women chess players in their next tournaments.

Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk

Women's World Chess Champion

www.chessblog.com

March 8 International Women's Day

Hello everybody!

March 8 is a big holiday in Russia. It is called the International Women's Day. If you come to Russia on the 8th of March then you will see that almost every man is bringing flowers (mostly mimosas) to his loved ones. Everybody congratulates women, girls, moms.

I would also like to congratulate women's chess players with this wonderful day! Let me wish all of us happiness and love! Let us wish that our children will be happy and healthy and we always have loved ones next to us.

What is the best way to celebrate this special day? To organize a chess tournament, of course! A women's chess tournament to be precise. That's probably why, every year since 1965 in March there is a very strong women's international chess tournament. The 42nd Women's International 8th of March Tournament is taking place right now in Belgrade, Serbia.

The history of this tournament is fascinating:

The First Women's International March 8 Tournament was organized between March 8 and 24, 1965, in honour of The International Women's Day - March 8.

The International March 8 Tournaments have become a tradition in Belgrade, and with the exception of 1980 and 1984, have been held every year. In 1980, the tournament wasn't held at all due to financial reasons, and in 1984, it was played according to the Swiss system, but only with the participion of local players.

Almost all the leading women chess players have competed in the March 8 Tournaments, including many world champions. The legendary Nona Gaprindashvilli was the seven-times winner and in 1971 she scored 100% - 13 points in 13 games!

Today the organizer of the tournament, the Belgrade Chess Association, tried to save tradition of the tournament and has managed to do that.

This year, the 42nd International Women's Grandmaster Chess Tournament is being held from the 3rd to the 11th of March.

Below is the list of the winners of the Tournament so far:

1. 1965 E. Bilek

2. 1966 N. Gaprindashvili i A. Nicolau

3. 1967 T.Zatulovskaya

4. 1968 N.Gaprindashvili

5. 1969 N.Aleksandria

6. 1970 A.Kushner

7. 1971 N.Gaprindashvili

8. 1972 A.Nicolau / M.Lazarevic

9. 1973 A.Nicolau

10. 1974 N.Gaprindashvili

11. 1975 Z.Veroci / V.Kozlovska / A.Georgieva

12. 1976 N.Gaprindashvili

13. 1977 Z.Veroci / I.Levitina

14. 1978 N. Gaprindashvili

15. 1979 N.Aleksandria

16. 1981 LJ. Zajceva

17. 1982 E.Akhmilovskaya

18. 1983 Z.Veroci

19. 1985 S.Matveeva

20. 1986 N.Gurieli

21. 1987 M.Litinska / S.Matveeva

22. 1989 Z.Veroci

23. 1990 N.Gurieli / N. Bojkovic/ M.Voiska

24. 1991 N.Gaprindashvili

25. 1992 M.Chiburdanidze

26. 1993 I. Umanskaia

27. 1994 A.Galjamova

28. 1995 S.Prudnikova

29. 1996 M.Chiburdanidze

30. 1997 A.Benderac

31. 1998 N.Zhukova

32. 1999 G. Markovic

33. 2000 E.Kovalevskaya

34. 2001 I.Chelushkina

35. 2002 I.Chelushkina

36. 2003 S.Prudnikova

37. 2005 LJ.Drljevic / I.Chelushkina / G.Olarasu / S.Petrenko

38. 2006 S.Petrenko

39. 2007 S.Petrenko

40. 2008 N.Bojkovic

41. 2009 I.Čoluškina

5 rounds have been played so far and Margarita Voiska from Bulgaria is in the lead right now with 4 points out of 5. You can follow how is it going on the official web-site, here.

Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk

Women's World Chess Champion

www.chessblog.com