Croatia World Senior Chess Round 7: Rogulij, Vaisser, Hulak in Joint Lead
Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hello everyone,
The World Senior Chess Championship 2013 is being held in Croatia. Three players - IM Rogulij (Cro), GM Vaisser (Fra) and GM Hulak (Cro) - are in joint lead after seven rounds in the open section. Trailing by a half a point are IM Berkovic (Isr) GM Balashov (Rus) and GM Kristiansen (Den).
In the women's section, the leader is WFM Ankudinova (Kaz) with 5,5 points. Three players are right behind on 5: Khmiadashvili (Geo) Fatalibekova (Rus) and the legendary Nona Gaprindashvili (Geo).
The 23rd Individual World Senior Championship is being held in Opatija, Rijeka under the organization of Chess Club Rijeka. Accommodation is at the Grand Hotel Milenij and the championship is taking place in the Congress centre Tamaris which is located within the hotel complex.
The total prize fund of the 23rd individual senior chess championship 2013 amounts to 18.000,00 euro, of which 14.000,00 is to be distributed in the open section, while 4.000,00 euro will be given away in the women's section. Find or all information about the competition and registration please visit worldsenior2013.rijekachess.com.
Labels: ankudinova, balashov, berkovic, Fatalibekova, Gaprindashvili, hulak, khmiadashvili, kristiansen, rogulij, vaisser, World Senior Chess Championship
Gaprindashvili, Laznicka win György Marx Chess Festival
 Fifth Women's World Ches Champion Nona: Chess is forever
Hello Everyone,
Former world women's chess champion Georgian Nona Gaprindashvili - the legendary fifth women's world champion to be precise - has won the women's section of the György Marx Memorial 2010. The Chess Festival was held in Paks, Hungary from August 5-16, 2010. Paks is situated south-west of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the River Danube.
In 1961, at the age of 20, Gaprindashvili won the fourth women's Candidates Tournament, setting up a title match against Russian world champion Elisabeth Bykova. She won the match and successfully defended her title four times. Eventually she lost her crown in 1978 to another Georgian, 17-year-old Maia Chiburdanidze.
Gaprindashvili played for Soviet Union in the Chess Olympiads of 1963, 1966, 1969, 1972, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1990, and for Georgia in 1992. She was one of the contributing players of the USSR team that dominated the women's Olympiads of the 1980s. During her career Gaprindashvili successfully competed in men's tournaments, winning (amongst others) the Hastings Challengers tournament in 1963/4 and tying for first place at Lone Pine in 1977, earning a grandmaster norm. It is nice to see her play again. Though, she now takes part in only one tournament a year. There is a cup named after her which is given to those men and women chess players who got the most point on a Chess Olympiads.
Meanwhile, the men's section at the Memorial Chess Tournament was won by Viktor Laznicka.
The men's sectionfeatured six Grandmasters - Zoltan Almasi (the first 2700+ player at the event), Ferenc Berkes, Viktor Laznicka, Peter Acs, Jan Timman, and Ray Robson (the first American ever to participate). The average rating of the participants was 2629 making it a category 16 event.
The women's section included IM Ildikó Mádl, WGM Lilit Galojan, IM Tatiana Kononenko, GM Nona Gaprindashvili, IM Szidónia Vajda, and WIM Lili Tóth. The average rating was 2347.
The Memorial also included Rapid, Blitz and Kids' Sections. You can check the official website here.
Here is a nice game by Toth-Gaprindashvili game that you can see in our pgnplayer or flashplayer below.
PGN: 1. e4 b6 2. d4 Bb7 3. Nc3 e6 4. Be3 g6 5. Qd2 d5 6. e5 Ne7 7. Bd3 Nf5 8. Bxf5 gxf5 9. Nh3 Be7 10. Qe2 h5 11. Nf4 h4 12. O-O-O Nd7 13. g4 fxg4 14. Qxg4 Nf8 15. Nh5 Qd7 16. Ng7+ Kd8 17. f4 Ba6 18. f5 Kc8 19. f6 Bb4 20. Nb1 Ng6 21. Rhg1 Rg8 22. Qf3 Kb7 23. a3 Bf8 24. Nh5 Rh8 25. Nf4 Nxf4 26. Bxf4 c5 27. dxc5 bxc5 28. Nc3 Qc6 29. Bg5 Kc7 30. Rde1 Rb8 31. Rg4 Qb6 32. Nd1 d4 33. Bxh4 Bb7 34. Qg3 Bd5 35. Rg7 c4 36. Rxf7+ Kc6 37. Rxf8 Rhxf8 38. Bg5 Rf7 39. Bh6 Rd7 40. Rf1 c3 41. bxc3 Qb1+ 42. Kd2 Be4 43. Ke1 Qxc2 44. Rf2 Qa4 45. f7 Rb1 46. Rd2 Rxf7 47. Rxd4 Qc2 48. Qe3 Bd5 49. Rd2 Qf5 50. Qe2 Kc7 51. c4 Bf3 52. Qe3 Bb7 53. Qc5+ Bc6 54. Qxa7+ Kc8 55. Qg1 Qxe5+ 56. Be3 Rg7 57. Qf2 Rg8 58. h4 Qe4 59. Rb2 Qh1+ 60. Kd2 Rxb2+ 0-1
From Alexandra Kosteniuk's Also see her personal blog at Labels: Gaprindashvili, György Marx, nona
A strong chess player must have strong nerves: Gaprindashvili
 Former Women's Chess World Champion Nona Gaprindashvili as a young lady
Hello Everyone,
At the age of 20, in 1961, Gaprindashvili became the World Women's Chess Champion beating Elisabeth Bykova. The Georgian defended her title successfully four times losing it eventually to 17-year-old Maia Chiburdanidze, another Georgian, in 1978.
The former World Champion says a strong chess player must have a natural talent for chess, strong nerves, a firm psychological profile, and a resolute constitution!
Gaprindashvili spoke at length about her life and chess on the sidelines of the ongoing Women's Chess Grand Prix in Jermuk, Armenia.
You can read the full interview here.
Meanwhile, here is a nice French Defence game by Gaprindashvili from 1975.
From Alexandra Kosteniuk's Also see her personal blog at
Labels: Gaprindashvili
May Chess Birthday Nona Gaprindashvili
Hello everybody!
On May 3, 1941 a great chess player, the 5th women's world chess champion Nona Gaprindashvili was born. She has had an amazing career, being the world champion for 16 years! She won as many as 25 medals, among which 11 team gold medals and 9 individual gold medals. At the olympiad of Dubai 1986 she won all ten games she played. Nona Terentyevna Gaprindashvili is still taking part in chess event, winning the last senior women's world chess title.
I congratulate Nona Gaprindashvili on her birthday and wish her all the best in her life!
Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Labels: birthdays, Gaprindashvili
Nona Gaprindashvili is women senior world chess champion
From October 27 to November 8, 2009 the 19th world senior chess championship took place in Italy. The women's section was won by the legendary chess champion Nona Gaprindashvili who scored 7,5 out of 9 and took clear first place ahead of Elena Fatalibekova (7 points) and Tatiana Fominykh (6,5).
Nona Gaprindashvili was the 5th women's world chess champion and was the first woman to achieve the highest chess title of Grandmaster in 1978. She has had a tremendous career. She won the world title against Elizaveta Bykova in 1962 with the final score of 9-2 (+7−0=4), and went on to defend her title successfully four times: three times against Alla Kushnir (1965: 10–6; 1969: 12–7; 1972: 12–11) and once against fellow Georgian Nana Alexandria (1975: 9–4). She finally lost her crown in 1978 to another Georgian, 17-year-old Maia Chiburdanidze, by the score of 6½–8½ (+2−4=9). Nona Terentievna was the winner of 10 women's chess Olympiads for the USSR team in 1963, 1966, 1969, 1972, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986 and once in 1992 for the Georgian team!
Here are just three brilliances from the numerous nice wins of Gaprindashvili:
 Sznapik - Gaprindashvili, 1976. Black to nove.
Gaprindashvili - Khasin, 1977. White to move.
Gaprindashvili - Nikolac, 1979. White to move.
Congratulations to Nona Gaprindashvili! And I wish her a lot of success in her future tournaments!
Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Labels: Gaprindashvili
Women's World Chess Champions
 Hello everyone!
Since my blog is about women's chess I would like to start by introducing you to the whole list of women's world chess champions and the history of the women's world chess championships. This information is taken from Wikipedia.The Women's World Chess Championship is played to determine the women's world champion in chess. Like the World Chess Championship, it is administered by FIDE.
Unlike most sports, women are able to compete against men in chess, and so some women do not compete for the women's title.
The regulations of the women’s world chess championship can be found on the FIDE web-site.
The Women's World Championship was established by FIDE in 1927 as a single tournament held alongside the Chess Olympiad. The winner of that tournament, Vera Menchik, did not have any special rights as the men's champion did — instead she had to defend her title by playing as many games as all the challengers. She did this successfully in every other championship in her lifetime (1930, 1931, 1933, 1935, 1937 and 1939). Menchik died, still champion, in 1944 in a German air raid on Kent.
The next championship was another round-robin tournament in 1949-50 and was won by Lyudmila Rudenko. Thereafter a system similar to that of the men's championship was established, with a cycle of Candidates events (and later Interzonals) to pick a challenger to face the reigning champion.
The first Candidates tournament was held in Moscow, 1952. Elisabeth Bykova won and proceeded to defeat Rudenko with seven wins, five losses, and two draws to become the third champion. The next Candidates tournament was won by Olga Rubtsova. Instead of directly playing Bykova, however, FIDE decided that the championship should be held between the three top players in the world. Rubtsova won at Moscow in 1956, one-half point ahead of Bykova, who finished five points ahead of Rudenko. Bykova regained the title in 1958 and defended it against Kira Zvorykina, winner of a Candidates tournament, in 1959.
The fourth Candidates tournament was held in 1961 in Vrnjacka Banja, and was utterly dominated by Nona Gaprindashvili of Georgia, who won with ten wins, zero losses, and six draws. She then decisively defeated Bykova with seven wins, no losses, and four draws in Moscow, 1962 to become champion. Gaprindashvili defended her title against Alla Kushnir of Russia at Riga 1965 and Tbilisi/Moscow 1969. In 1972, FIDE introduced the same system for the women's championship as with the men's: a series of Interzonal tournaments, followed by the Candidates matches. Kushnir won again, only to be defeated by Gaprindashvili at Riga 1972. Gaprindashvili defended the title one last time against Nana Alexandria of Georgia at Pitsunda/Tbilisi 1975.
In 1976-1978 Candidates cycle, 17-year-old Maya Chiburdanidze of Georgia ended up the surprise star, defeating Nana Alexandria, Elena Akhmilovskaya, and Alla Kushnir to face Gaprindashvili in the 1978 finals at Tbilisi. Chiburdanidze proceeded to soundly defeat Gaprindashvili, marking the end of one Georgian's domination and the beginning of another's. Chiburdanidze defended her title against Alexandria at Borjomi/Tbilisi 1981 and Irina Levitina at Volgograd 1984. Following this, FIDE reintroduced the Candidates tournament system. Akhmilovskaya, who had earlier lost to Chiburdanidze in the Candidates matches, won the tournament was but was still defeated by Chiburdanidze at Sofia 1986. Chiburdanidze's final title defense came against Nana Ioseliani at Telavi 1988.
Chiburdanidze's domination ended at Manila 1991, where the young Chinese star Xie Jun defeated her, after finishing second to the still-active Gaprindashvili in an Interzonal, tying with Alisa Maric in the Candidates tournament, and then beating Maric in a tie-breaker match.
Susan (also known as Zsuzsa) Polgar won the 1992 Candidates tournament at Shanghai. The Candidates final - an 8 game match between the top two finishers in the tournament - was a drawn match between Polgar and Ioseliani, even after two tiebreaks. The match was decided by a lottery, which Ioseliani won. She was then promptly crushed by Xie Jun (8.5-2.5) in the championship at Monaco 1993.
The next cycle was dominated by Susan Polgar. She tied with Chiburdanidze in the Candidates tournament, defeated her easily in the match (5.5-1.5), and then decisively defeated Xie Jun (8.5-4.5) at Jaén 1996 for the championship.
In 1997, Russian Alisa Galliamova and Chinese Xie Jun finished first and second, but Galliamova refused to play the final match entirely in China. FIDE eventually awarded the match to Xie Jun by default.
However, by the time all these delays were sorted out, Polgar had given birth to her first child. She requested that the match be postponed. FIDE refused, and eventually set up the championship to be between Galliamova and Xie Jun. The championship was held in Kazan, Tatarstan and Shenyang, China, in 1999 and Xie Jun won with five wins, three losses, and seven draws.
In 2000, a knock-out event, similar to the FIDE men's title and held alongside it, was the new format of the women's world championship. It was won by Xie Jun. In 2001 a similar event determined the champion, Zhu Chen. Another knock-out, this one held separately from the men's event, in Elista, the capital of the Russian republic of Kalmykia (of which FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is president), from May 21 to June 8, 2004, produced Bulgarian Antoaneta Stefanova as champion. As with Polgar seven years prior, Zhu Chen did not participate due to pregnancy.
In 2006 the title returned to China. Interestingly, the new champion Xu Yuhua was pregnant during the championship.
In 2008, the title went to Russian grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk, who, in the final, beat Chinese prodigy Hou Yifan 2.5-1.5.
Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion http://www.chessblog.com/Labels: Bykova, Chiburdanidze, Gaprindashvili, Kosteniuk, Menchik, Polgar, Rubtsova, Rudenko, Stefanova, Women in Chess, Women's World Chess Champions, Xie Jun, Xu Yuhua, Zhu Chen
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