Germany win European Team Chess Championship 2011 - Open Section
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011
Hi everyone,
Congratulations to Germany for winning the European Team Chess Championship 2011 - Open Section overcoming Armenia in the last round. Azerbaijan beat Romania in the last round to take silver. Bulgaria lost to Hungary giving the latter the bronze.
Germany versus Armenia in last round.
In the women's section, as you already know, Russia took gold. Click on the photo to read all the updates, news, etc. on Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk's personal blog www.chessqueen.com.
From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
Also see her personal blog at
Labels: chess news, european team chess championship 2011, germany, Russia
Candid chess chat and kisses from pretty champ Pogonina
Chess News and Chess Trivia Blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2010
 Natalia Pogonina Find more great photos of this chess star here.
Hello Everyone,
Before we write anything about this Russian super-strong and pretty chess player let us clarify to all fans that she is married. Sorry. You're too late.
And, now you can go on and read her interview.
WGM Natalia Andreevna Pogonina, 25 years old, a resident of Saratov in Russia was on Board 1 for Russia 2 at the recent Chess Olympiad in Khanty Mansisyk. A law student, she knows her mind and can speak well on any subject.
You will love reading this nice interview she gave to Radio Xadrez in Portuguese. You can read it in English at Chessbase.
Q. Radio Xadrez: – First of all, we’d like to know: have you always played chess exclusively or are you interested in any other sports? Looking through the pretty pictures on your website, we have a feeling that you could be a beautiful ice skater or an Olympic gymnast in Russia. Has it always been only chess?
Natalia Pogonina: I am an avid sports fan and enjoy watching almost all types of sport broadcasts. Also love playing football, basketball, volleyball, skating and dancing.
Q. Radio Xadrez: – We’ve always heard in America that millions of children play chess in Russia. That leads us to think of babies who are born holding chess pieces, chess clocks and have autographs of Mikhail Tal or Alexander Alekhine on their onesies. Have you played since you were a little girl or did it take a while for you to find out about the game?
Natalia Pogonina: As most grandmasters, I have learnt how to play chess at a relatively early age – at five. Since I was 12 (after winning the Russian Championship) for the first time I started considering myself a chess semi-pro, and decided to become a chess professional a few years later.
She also talks about how though being a chess mom she won't pressurize her son into taking up chess. Sensible that.
Go on read the full interview. Enjoy.
From Alexandra Kosteniuk's Also see her personal chess blog at Labels: Chess Olympiad, Natalia Pogonina, Russia
Russia vs. China Team chess event: China wins slow games section
 Nadezhda Kosintseva: All for Russia
Hello Everyone,
The 7th China vs Russia Chess Match is taking place from August 4th-15th, 2010 in Yinzhou, Ningbo, China. These matches have taken place between Russia and China since 2001. The first, in 2001 was in Shanghai, the next, in 2004 in Moscow, in 2006 in Argun, 2007 in Nizhni Novgorod, 2008 in Ningbo, and in 2009 in Sochi. China beat Russia in the slow games section during the 7th China-Russia match. Five rounds were played in the section. The Chinese team was led by captain Ni Hua. Bu Xiangzhi scored an incredible 2928 performance. Ju Wenjun led the women's section with a 2693 performance.
The Chinese team defeated the Russians by an overall score of 27-23 in the slow games match up. A series of rapid games and then blitz games will take place next.
You can find more details from the official website here in Chinese or check out a news report in English here.
Here is a nice game by Nadezhda Kosintseva against Huang Qian. You can run the moves in our pgnplayer or watch in flash below.
PGN: 1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qd6 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 c6 6. Ne5 Nbd7 7. f4 e6 8. g4 Qc7 9. Bg2 Nd5 10. Ne4 Be7 11. O-O O-O 12. c4 N5b6 13. b3 f6 14. Nd3 Rd8 15. Qe2 Nf8 16. Bb2 Bd7 17. Kh1 Be8 18. Rae1 Bf7 19. f5 Nbd7 20. Nf4 Re8 21. fxe6 Nxe6 22. Nxe6 Bxe6 23. Ng5 Bf7 24. Nxf7 Bb4 25. Qxe8+ Rxe8 26. Rxe8+ Kxf7 27. Re2 Bd6 28. Be4 Bf4 29. Bf5 Nf8 30. Rfe1 b6 31. b4 g6 32. Be4 Nd7 33. a3 Bd6 34. Rf1 Bf8 35. c5 bxc5 36. dxc5 h6 37. Bc2 Kg7 38. Re6 a5 39. Bxf6+ Nxf6 40. Rexf6 Be7 41. Rxg6+ Kh8 42. Rxh6+ Kg8 43. Rg6+ Kh8 44. Rf5 1-0
From Alexandra Kosteniuk's Also see her personal blog at
Labels: China, Russia
7th China vs Russia Team Chess Tournament begins
 Opening ceremony full of Russian and Chinese music presentations.
Hello Everyone,
The China-Russia Team Chess Tournament is being held in Yinzhou, Ningbo, China from August 14-15, 2010. This team tournament began in 2001 and was first held in Shanghai.
All members of each team play all members of the other team once with games starting on August 5. The time control will be 90 minutes for 40 moves + 30 minutes to the end of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. You can watch the live games here. The site is in Chinese though. From August 11 - 13 three-day rapid matches would be held.
Here are the teams:
Russia ------------
Men: Vladimir Malakhov GM 2732, Nikita Vitiugov GM 2722, Artyom Timofeev GM2690, Sergei Rublevsky GM 2688, Alexander Motylev GM 2685
Women: Kosintseva Nadezhda IM 2551, Natalija Pogonina WGM 2501, Valentina Gunina WGM 2462, Anastasia Bodnaruk WGM 2397, Alina Kashlinskaya WGM 2452
China ------------
Men: Wang Hao GM 2724, Wang Yue GM 2716, Bu Xiangzhi GM 2676, Zhou Jiangchao GM 2668, Ni Hua GM 2645
Women: Ju Wenjun WGM 2496, Tan Zhongyi WGM 2461, Huang Qian WGM 2447, Ding Yixin WGM 2385, Wang Yu A IM 2369
Here is a nice Ju Wenjun-Nadezhda Kosintseva game from the first round. You can run the moves in pgnplayer or watch in flash below.
PGN: 1.d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Nf3 Be7 5. Bg2 O-O 6. O-O dxc4 7. Qc2 a6 8. Qxc4 b5 9. Qc2 Bb7 10. Bd2 Be4 11. Qc1 Bb7 12. Rd1 Nbd7 13. Ba5 Bd6 14. Nbd2 Qb8 15. Nb3 Qa7 16. Ne1 Bxg2 17. Kxg2 e5 18. Nc2 Rac8 19. Ne3 Rfe8 20. d5 g6 21. Qc2 Nb8 22. Rac1 c5 23. dxc6 Rxc6 24. Qd2 Bf8 25. Nd5 Ne4 26. Qe3 Qxe3 27. Nxe3 Bh6 28. Rxc6 Nxc6 29. Bb6 Bf8 30. Nd5 Kg7 31. Nc7 Rb8 32. Be3 Rc8 33. Nxa6 Ra8 34. Nc7 Rxa2 35. Ne8+ Kg8 36. Nd2 Nxd2 37. Rxd2 Be7 38. Rc2 Nb4 39. Rc8 h5 40. Bc1 Ra5 41. Bd2 Ra2 42. Nd6+ Kg7 43. Bxb4 1-0
From Alexandra Kosteniuk's Also see her personal blog at
Labels: China, Russia, Team Championship
Women at Aeroflot Chess Open
 Shayesteh Ghader Pour from Iran
Hello everybody!
From February 9 to February 18, 2010 the very strong Aeroflot-open is taking place. In the A1 tournament, where the rating floor for participation is 2550, there are 5 strong chess ladies playing.
After 6 rounds, the standings for the women players are as follows (current rank; name; country; points; rating; perfomance):
49. Kosintseva, Tatiana RUS 2,5 2515 2635 59. Hou Yifan CHN 2,0 2590 2534 64. Kosintseva, Nadezhda RUS 2,0 2533 2580 66. Sebag, Marie FRA 2,0 2510 2540 67. Javakhishvili, Lela GEO 2,0 2493 2538
In the A2 tournament, where the rating floor is 2399, there are 8 ladies chess players:
21. Harika, Dronavalli IND 3,0 2471 2505 40. Ovod, Evgenija RUS 2,5 2415 2477 41. Savina Anastasia RUS 2,5 2407 25o3 47. Romanko Maria RUS 2,0 2433 2392 48. Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina RUS 2,0 2428 2386 58. Bodnaruk, Anastasia RUS 1,5 2372 2306 65. Pourkashiyan, Atousa IRI 1,0 2306 2193 66. Karavade, Eesha IND 0,5 2405 2061
In the B tournament, which is for chess players with a rating less than 2400 but higher than 2199, there are 6 ladies playing. Mammadova, Gulnar from Azerbaijan (2221) has 5 points out of 6, sharing the first place in the group and is showing a performance of 2600.
In the C tournament which is for players with a rating of 2200 or lower, there are 3 ladies playing and all of them have 4 out of 6 at the moment.
I wish all ladies success in these strong mixed tournaments, let us show that women's chess is exciting, and getting stronger every day!
Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Labels: aeroflot-open, Moscow, Russia
CHINA is 2 times women's world team champion!
The women's world chess championship 2009 came to its end. After a very exciting last round, where China could only achieve a draw against the outsider of the tournament, the team of Vietnam. Russia, after winning 3-1 against China-2, caught up China by match points. Ukraine after a very dramatic match by some miracle also managed to win their match against Armenia 2,5 to 1,5 and also caught up China by match points.
So 3 teams shared first place by match points - China, Russia and Ukraine, both with 12 match points. But individual team points are decisive. So China took gold with 21,5 points. Russia won silver medals with 21 points and Ukraine took bronze medals with 20,5 points. The full table of results can be found here.
The best player of the championship according to points and to the percentage was Russia's Valentina Gunina (on the photo below) with 6,5 points out of 8 (81,3%).
The best player of the championship according to perfomance was Russia's Nadezhda Kosintseva (on the photo below) with a perfomance of 2608!
Congratulations to the teams and all the players for a very interesting and hard-fought championship!
Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Labels: China, Gunina, Kosintseva, Russia, Ukraine, women's world team championship
Russia-China Annual Chess Match
From August 15 till August 24 in Dagomys (Russia), the 6th annual match between the national teams (men's and women's) of Russia and China will take place. Each team will consist of 10 players (5 men and 5 women). The players will play a Scheveningen match with 5 games with classical time control, 5 games in rapid chess and 5 games in blitz.
The Russian men's team will consist of Vladimir Malakhov, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Artiom Timofeev, Nikita Vitiugov and Jan Nepomniachtchi.
The Chinese men's team will consist of Wang Yue, Bu Xiangzhi, Ni Hua, Zhou Jianchao and Ding Liren.
The Russian women's team will consist of Tatiana and Nadezhda Kosintseva, Elena Tairova, Marina Romanko and Valentina Gunina.
The Chinese women's team will consist of Zhao Xue, Xu Yuhua, Shen Yang, Ju Wenjun, Huang Qian.
This should be a very interesting match and I will keep you posted of the results.
Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk
Women's World Chess Champion
www.chessblog.com
Labels: China, Russia
Baltic Queen Tournament in Saint-Petersburg, Russia
From August 10 till August 20, 2009 in Saint-Petersburg, Russia a very strong women closed chess tournament will take place.
The participants are: Pia Cramling (SWE, 2525), Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (SCO, 2506), Elizabeth Paehtz (GER, 2474), Viktorija Cmilyte (LTU, 2470), Natalia Zhukova (UKR, 2465), Peng Zhaoqin (NED, 2418), Ekaterina Atalik (TUR, 2434), Anastasia Bodnaruk (RUS, 2388), Irina Turova (RUS, 2387) and Julia Demina (RUS, 2378). The tournament will be held by Saint-Petersburg Chess Federation, the main sponsor is OAO Gazprom. The schedule of the tournament can be found here.
I'm very glad to see that the Saint Petersburg Chess Federation is doing so many things for women's chess. This year European Women's Chess Championship
was also held in Saint-Petersburg and now we will see another very strong chess women's tournament in this wonderful and beautiful city on the banks of the Neva river.
A small photo album of my visit to Saint-Petersburg in 2003 can be found here.
Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk
Women's World Chess Champion
www.chessblog.comLabels: Baltic Queen, Russia, Saint-Petersburg
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