Raisa Barria is Panama Women Chess Champion 2009

The second and third weekend of November, the Panamanian Women Chess Championship Finals took place in Panama-city.

The Championship Finals was a 6 player round-robin, played the 14,15,20,21 and 22 of November. Five of the finalists came from the qualification tournament and, together, with the Panamanian 2008 champion, Betty Arosemena, fought for the 2009 chess title.

Betty Arosemena, 2008 Panama Women Champion

After five rounds of hard fought games, the final standings were as follows:

1. Raisa Barría 5.0 pts

2. Betty Arosemena 4.0 pts

3. Alba Muñoz 3.0 pts

4. Yesuri Foster 1.5 pts

5. Yaribeth Gonzalez 1.0 pts

6. Yaleika Chung 0.5 pts

Great performance done by Women National Master, Raisa Barría, who won all of her games, showing great tactical skills!

Raisa Barría, 2009 Panamá Women Champion

The first 5 girls of this championship qualified to play for the Panamanian team that will participate in the coming Central American Games in March of 2010, and the first 8 places have gained valuables points, for the race to become a member of the team that would represent the country on 2010 chess Olympiad.

I met most of the participants of this championship during my visit to Panama in June of this year.

Me playing in Panamá in a Hot simul against Betty, Yaribeth and Raisa

I'm very happy to see that the girls continue playing chess and fight hard to become better chess players. I wish all the participants the very best in their chess careers and live and hope to be able to meet them in live one more time.

Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk

Women's World Chess Champion

www.chessblog.com

Central America and Carribean Youth Chess Championship 2009

From August 6 till August 11, 2009 the Central America and Carribean Youth Championship is taking place in Panama.

The treasurer of the Puerto Rico Chess Federation George Perez-Borrero let us know that:

" The Puerto Rico Chess Federation will be sending a delegation of nine young chess players to the IV Central American and Caribbean Youth Chess Festival to be held at Panamá City, Panamá from August 6 to 15, 2009. The delegation will be lead by the Puerto Rico Chess Federation President., Omar Añeses-Bocanegra and among the representation there will be two chess trainers FM Luis Sosa-Trani and Abnel Ayala-Sanchez.

Among the delegation the last year Pan American Youth silver medalist Danitza Vazquez-Maccarini will be participating in the 10 year old girls section. Danitza Vazquez-Maccarini with only nine years old came out in second place in this year’s Puerto Rico Woman Chess Championship with a rating performance of 1873.


Boys Under 12: Abnell Comas Colon
Boys Under 14 : Rinel Comas Colón
Boys Under 16 : Pedro Rodríguez Mercado
Boys Under 18 : Raúl Vázquez Reyes
Girls Under 14 : Rinelly Comas Colón
Girls Under 10 : Danitza Vázquez Macarrini
Girls Under 16 : Jill Bianca Claudio del Valle
Girls Under 18 : Wilmairi Sánchez Rodríguez

The official page for the event is http://www.ajedrezpanama.com/

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

Hot simul in Panama

It was very hot this afternoon while I was giving a simul to 20 players in Panama, organized by the local company Promociones Caissa. I came absolutely unprepared and already during the simul I had to put on my sun-glasses,


then I put on 60 SPF block-screen,
then I had to find a hat.But after that everything went on very well. I finished the simul with the perfect score +20=0-0!

I had many interesting games, including the following positions, which you can have a look at.

White plays and wins

White plays and wins

As always in simuls I was playing White in both games. Try to find the best continuation for White.

Just after the simul another very important event took place. The Panamanian Chess Federation signed a special contract for supporting chess in the school curriculum and I was witness of this historical moment. I hope that chess will get its deserved place in the system of the Panamanian education and many children will get a chance to find out how wonderful the game of chess is.

Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk

Women's World Chess Champion

www.chessblog.com

Hello from Panama and Women's Chess Kaleidoscope

Hi everybody!

I'm in Panama right now, having a very good time and promoting chess. Today I had the honor to meet the Mayor of Panama who handed me a diploma of distinguished visitor of Panama City. After that I gave a press-conference about my trip to Panama and why did I decide to visit this country. In the afternoon I gave a one hour lecture in the University of Panama about how chess helps in life and business. There were over 300 hundred people who attended this lecture and everything went very well.

Tomorrow at 9 AM I will give a simul to 20 players. We will have more nice photos soon.

Meanwhile many interesting women's chess tournaments are going on or just finished.

The Maia Chiburdanidze Cup

(International Open Women's Chess Tournament) took place in Tbilisi, Georgia on June 4-12, 2009. It was a very strong tournament with 57 women's players participating it it.

Final Standings:

1-2. Khotenashvili (GEO, 2364) and Javakhishvili (GEO, 2463) (on photo on the right)– 7 out of 9.
3-5. Muzychuk (SLO, 2533), Purtseladze (GEO, 2327) and Melia (GEO, 2440) – 6½.
6-9. Dzagnidze (GEO, 2541), Galojan (ARM, 2323), Khukhashvili (GEO, 2424) and Khurtsidze (GEO, 2424) - 6 etc.

Marisa Zuriel (photo on the right) won the 2.5 zonal tournament that was held in Asunció (Paraguay) from June 10 till June 18, 2009. She finished first with 8.5 points out of 10, ahead of Carolina Lujan and Maria Plazaola who had 7 points.

The zonal tournament 2.4 that was held in Brasil from June 8 till June 18, 2009 was won by Juliana Terao.

The zonal tournament 3.4 is going on right now in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. It will finish on June 26, 2009.

The winners of the zonal tournaments qualify for the Women's World Chess Championship 2010.

The international chess festival "Ruy Lopez" just ended today in Zafra (Spain) and was won by Ivan Cheparinov from Bulgaria who finished with 5 points out of 7. Pia Cramling was 6th with 3 points out of 7. Humpy Koneru shared the last place with 2.5 points.

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

Kosteniuk Summer Plans 2009

Dear Chess Friends!

I would like to let you know about my plans for this summer. Right now I'm in Paris and I just finished my new autobiographical book which should come out in Russian in September, in English by the end of the year.

In a few days I'll pass by Switzerland and on June 16 I will fly to Miami. On June 18 I'm going to Panama to participate in the inauguration of the new Cinta Costera. I will give an open air simul (on June 20), showing that chess is a healthy activity, suitable for the whole family. I will also visit the "Universidad de las Americas" on June 19 and will give a talk on how chess helps in life, and in business. I haven't been to Panama and am really looking forward to this interesting experience. I can promise you many photos from this event.

I'm coming back from Panama to Miami on June 21 and already on June 22 the first session of my first annual chess summer camp starts, which will take place at the historic Chess Hall of Fame and Chess Museum in Miami, Florida.

Kids from 5 to 18 are invited to take part in it. There will be 4 weekly camps (June 22-26, June 29-July 3, July 6-10, and July 13-17). I will run this camp myself and kids will not only get to know many useful chess things and improve in chess, but at the same time will have fun. On July 10-12 there will also be a tournament - The Alexandra Kosteniuk USA Chess Cup (for girls and boys U-8, U-11, U-14, U-18).

After the camp I'll be doing a lot of interesting things for chess fans such as writing books, recording my free audio podcast "Chess is Cool" as well as the free video podcasts "Chess Killer Tips" and will prepare for the 110th US open which will take place in Indianapolis, Indiana from August 1 till August 9. It will be my first serious competition in the USA 2009.

At the end of August I might play in the famous annual Moscow Blitz Championship.

I took part in it in 2005 and in 2006. On the photo above you can see me playing Morozevich, you can watch the whole photo album of the event of the year 2005 here.

In the year 2006 I played a few very interesting games which was recorded by my husband. One game was against GM Alexander Riazantsev. With a really speedy ending.

The other one was against GM Arthur Gabrielian.

I must say that I love blitz and I believe that the future of chess lies in tournaments with shorter time controls.

So this summer promise to be interesting, I will keep you posted about my activities as well as news on women's chess around the world.

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