Photo Finish in Aeroflot Chess Open 2010
Hello everybody!
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!
Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Labels: aeroflot-open, Hou Yifan, Kosintseva Nadezhda, Kosintseva Tatiana, Melia Salome
Winter and Women Playing Chess
Hello everybody!
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?
Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Labels: armenia, georgia, Melia Salome, moscow-open, Nazi Paikidze, romania
Monica Socko 2010 Women Polish Champion
Hello all!
The year 2010 just began but many interesting women's chess events are in full swing right now.
won 2-0 against the reigning Polish champion Iweta Rajlich and got the title 2010, congratulations!
The super strong Corus Chess Tournament started on the 16th of January in Wijk-aan-Zee. In the A-group with an average rating of 2719, top world grandmasters such as Anand, Carlsen, Kramnik among others take part. After 2 rounds Alexei Shirov is in the sole lead with 2 out of 2. In the "B" group, in the tournament with an average rating of 2629, after 2 rounds Anish Giri is in the lead with 2 out of 2. There is also one female representative in this group - Anna Muzychuk (on the photo below).
She is doing pretty well for the moment, with 2 draws out of 2. Her younger sister Maria Muzychuk, as well as the world girls champion under 20 Soumya Swaminathan are taking part in a very interesting "C" group. The average rating of the "C"-group is 2455, and for the moment Ray Robson is in the lead in this group with 2 out of 2. The tournament has a very nice video coverage by WGM Bianca Muhren, you can watch it on the official web-site, here.
The chess year is about to begin for me as well. This Tuesday I will be leaving Miami and will head to Europe where I will have quite a busy schedule. On January 21, 2010 my best friend Almira Skripchenko and I will be giving a tandem simul in Monaco, then on January 23 we will have another simultaneous exhibition in Brussels, after that on January 25 I will fly to Gibraltar where will take part in a super-strong open-tournament, with very attractive prizes for women. I promise to keep you updated on my traveling and games so make sure to come and visit my blog often :-)
Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Labels: Anna Muzychuk, Gibraltar, Melia Salome, Monika Socko, Wijk-aan-Zee
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