Alisa Galliamova is Russian Women Chess Champion 2009

Hello everybody!

Alisa Galliamova became the new 2009 Russian women's champion! After a break of almost 3 years, she's made a wonderful come-back scoring 7,5 (!) out of 9 with a perfomance of 2709 in a very strong Russian Superfinal. The Silver medal was won by Nadezhda Kosintseva who showed also a very nice performance of 2649 and scored 7 points out of 9. The Bronze medal went to Valentina Gunina with 6 points of 9 who showed a perfomance of 2562.

Alisa Galliamova started the tournament very well: 5 out of 5, showing that despite a long break she is still a very dangerous opponent. In the 6th round she could have secured the victory in the tournament by winning against Nadezhda Kosintseva. But Galliamova wasn't precise till the very end and the game ended in a draw. So Nadezhda continued to follow Alisa very closely till the very last round.

Below is the game of the newly crowned Russian champion from the second round. Alisa Galliamova is playing Black against Elena Zaiatz:

This game is an excellent example of "weakening maneuvers" and is very instructive. The Black pieces moved forward and backwards but each time White had to weaken her position and finally it collapses. The position below is after the 18. dxe5, it's Black to move.

Zaiatz - Galliamova, Black to move

18. ... Ng4! the first move from a series of maneuvers that will force White to weaken her king side.

19.f3 Bxb5 20.Qxb5

Zaiatz - Galliamova, Black to move

20 ... Qg5! forcing White one more time to push the pawns forward. 21. f4

(21. fxg4 didn't work very well in view of the following variation 21. ... Qe3+ 22. Kh1 {Kg2 Qf2+ and then after 23. Kh1 Black can at least to win the piece back by taking the bishop on b2 23. ... Qxb2; White's king can't go to h3 - 23. Kh3 since he will be checkmated after 23. ... Ng5+ 24. Kh4 Qh2+ 25. Kg5 Qh6#} 22. ... Qf3+ 23. Bg2 Nf2+ 24. Kg1 Qe3 {threatening to give a smothered mate by playing Nh3+ - Qg1+! - Nf2#} 25. h3 here Black can either play with a safe plus after 25. ... Nd3+ or to continue the attack with 25. ... f4!?).

Qh6 22.Qe2

Zaiatz - Galliamova, Black to move

22. ... g5! continuing to play in a nice aggressive style 23.fxg5 Nxg5 24.Kh1

Ne4 This position is an excellent example on when the knights are stronger than the bishops! 25.Kg1

Zaiatz - Galliamova, Black to move

25. ... Kh8 preparing the g-file for the rook 26.Bd4 Rg8 27.Rc2

Zaiatz - Galliamova, Black to move

27...Nef2! another maneuver that forces White to make an unwanted pawn's move forward 28.h4 Ne4 and one more move back in order to use the advantages of the g3 weakness. White's position is defendless and Alisa finished the game with a few nice tactical moves. 29.Qe1 Nxg3 30.Rg2 Nxf1 31.Kxf1 f4 32.e4 Ne3+ 33.Bxe3 fxe3 34.Rxg8+ Rxg8 35.exd5 exd5 36.Ke2 Rg2+ 37.Kd3 Rd2+ 38.Kc3 Qc6+ 0-1

[Event "59th ch-RUS w"]

[Site "Moscow RUS"]

[Date "2009.12.21"]

[Round "2"]

[White "Zaiatz,E"]

[Black "Galliamova,A"]

[Result "0-1"]

[Eco "D11"]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 e6 4.e3 Bd6 5.Qc2 f5 6.g3 Nf6 7.Bg2 O-O

8.O-O b6 9.b3 Qe7 10.Bb2 Bb7 11.Nc3 Nbd7 12.cxd5 cxd5 13.Nb5

Rfc8 14.Qe2 Ba6 15.Rfc1 Ne4 16.Bf1 Ndf6 17.Ne5 Bxe5 18.dxe5 Ng4

19.f3 Bxb5 20.Qxb5 Qg5 21.f4 Qh6 22.Qe2 g5 23.fxg5 Nxg5 24.Kh1

Ne4 25.Kg1 Kh8 26.Bd4 Rg8 27.Rc2 Nef2 28.h4 Ne4 29.Qe1 Nxg3 30.Rg2

Nxf1 31.Kxf1 f4 32.e4 Ne3+ 33.Bxe3 fxe3 34.Rxg8+ Rxg8 35.exd5

exd5 36.Ke2 Rg2+ 37.Kd3 Rd2+ 38.Kc3 Qc6+ 0-1

Valentina Gunina (on the photo below) who took bronze,

played in her usual creative and attacking style. Here is one of her masterpieces from this tournament. It was the second round, Gunina is playing White against another Russian young star Anastasia Bodnaruk:

Black just played 21. ... e4 I'm sure Valentina didn't event think to move back 22.Bxe4! a nice positional sacrifice. fxe4 23.Nxg5 Nxg5 24.hxg5 Bxc3 According to Valentina's words: "The first sacrifice 22. Bxe4 was done by intuition but when the game reached the following position the solution was found pretty easily".

25.Bxd6! Qxd6 26.g6 Rxf1+ 27.Rxf1 Qe7 28.Rf7 Qxf7 29.gxf7+ Kg7

As the 3rd World Chess Champion Jose-Raul Capablance once said: "In positions with overwhelming advantage nice tactical shots are often easy to find".

30.Qh8+! a cute way to finish the attack

Kxf7 31.bxc3 Ke7 32.g4 Be8 33.Qe5+ Kd7 34.Qg7+ Kc8 35.Qe7 Bd7

36.g5 a5 37.Qxc5+ Kd8 38.Qf8+ Kc7 39.c5 Ra6 40.d6+ Kc6 41.Qxb8

Kxc5 42.Qc7+ 1-0

[Event "59th ch-RUS w"]

[Site "Moscow RUS"]

[Date "2009.12.21"]

[Round "2"]

[White "Gunina,V"]

[Black "Bodnaruk,A"]

[Result "1-0"]

[Eco "A48"]

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Bf4 Bg7 4.e3 O-O 5.Be2 d6 6.O-O Nh5 7.Bg5

h6 8.Bh4 f5 9.c4 g5 10.Nfd2 Nf6 11.Bg3 e6 12.Nc3 Qe7 13.f4 c6

14.fxg5 hxg5 15.Bd3 Ng4 16.Qe2 e5 17.d5 c5 18.h3 Nh6 19.Qh5 Bd7

20.Nf3 Nf7 21.h4 e4 22.Bxe4 fxe4 23.Nxg5 Nxg5 24.hxg5 Bxc3 25.Bxd6

Qxd6 26.g6 Rxf1+ 27.Rxf1 Qe7 28.Rf7 Qxf7 29.gxf7+ Kg7 30.Qh8+

Kxf7 31.bxc3 Ke7 32.g4 Be8 33.Qe5+ Kd7 34.Qg7+ Kc8 35.Qe7 Bd7

36.g5 a5 37.Qxc5+ Kd8 38.Qf8+ Kc7 39.c5 Ra6 40.d6+ Kc6 41.Qxb8

Kxc5 42.Qc7+ 1-0

Unfortunately Natalia Pogonina who took the very brave decision to take part in this event just two months after giving birth to her son and started the tournament very well, later on got a fever and had to withdraw from the tournament. I wish Natasha to get well soon and to come back even stronger! Here is a nice example of Natalia's superb play from the first round against Marina Romanko:

20.Nf5+! the perfect moment to start the attack Kg8 21.Qh6 Qxc3

22.Rh3! Chess is not always about winning extra material but rather about checkmating faster.

Qxa1+ 23.Bf1 Qxf1+ (after Qh8 White checkmates by playing Ne7#)

24.Kxf1 Ba6+ 25.Ke1 Rfe8+ 26.Ne3 Re6 27.Qxh7+ Kf8 28.Rf3 Rd7

29.Qh8+ Ke7 30.Qg7 1-0

[Event "59th ch-RUS w"]

[Site "Moscow RUS"]

[Date "2009.12.20"]

[Round "1"]

[White "Pogonina,N"]

[Black "Romanko,M"]

[Result "1-0"]

[Eco "B60"]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 g6 7.Bxf6

exf6 8.Be2 Bg7 9.O-O O-O 10.Ndb5 f5 11.Nxd6 Bxc3 12.bxc3 fxe4

13.Nxe4 Qe7 14.Bd3 b6 15.Qf3 Bb7 16.Rfe1 Kg7 17.Qf4 Na5 18.Re3

Rad8 19.Ng3 Qc5 20.Nf5+ Kg8 21.Qh6 Qxc3 22.Rh3 Qxa1+ 23.Bf1 Qxf1+

24.Kxf1 Ba6+ 25.Ke1 Rfe8+ 26.Ne3 Re6 27.Qxh7+ Kf8 28.Rf3 Rd7

29.Qh8+ Ke7 30.Qg7 1-0

You can read more about the Superfinal in the reports of Misha Savinov on chessbase.com - the first report, the second report and the third report. The full tables and some statistics, as well as all games can be found on TWIC.

I congratulate all the winners of this tournament and wish them to have an even more successful and happy new 2010 year!

Happy winners. Left to right: Alisa Galliamova, Nadezhda Kosintseva and Valentina Gunina, photo by Eldar Mukhametov, www.chessmoscow.ru

Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk

Women's World Chess Champion

www.chessblog.com

Women Chess RULES around the world

Hello all!

In the last months there were quite a few women’s tournaments that I didn’t have time to write about. So now I'm ready to catch up.

From November 3 to November 11, the Russian Women Cup took place in Saint Petersburg. The tournament was held by the knock-out system and had a pretty strong participant field, with ELO-favorites Marina Romanko and Ekaterina Kovalevskaya.

The first place was won by Tatiana Stepovaia (on the photo below).

Below is a nice tactical shot from the game between Maria Manakova and Tatiana Stepovaia. It’s Black to move.

The final tournament results table can be seen here.

The ladies versus the veterans match that was held by November 28 to December 5, 2009 in the Czech Republic, which I am happy to report ended with a win by the ladies. Even though in the last rounds the veterans were able to shorten the gap, the final score of the match was 16,5 to 15,5 in favor for the ladies. The best result was shown by Indian star Humpy Koneru (see her recent star interview here) who scored 5,5 out of 8 games. The results of all the players of the match can be found here.

The National Mind Sports Games took place in November in China. The games were similar to the 1st World Mind Sports Games that took place in Beijing in October 2008, and had competitions in different intellectual sports. The Women's Blitz was won by Hou Yifan who took 7,5 points with Xu Yuhua and Ju Wenjun with 6,5 points in the second and third place. The Women's Rapid was won by Tan Zhongyi with 7 points, with Ju Wenjun also with 7 points in the second place. Hou Yifan finished third with 6,5 points. The Women's Team Rapid was won by the team of Bejing with former world champion Xie Jun playing on the first board.

In the voting for the best chess game of October that is run monthly by IM Maxim Notkin on the russian chess web-site chesspro there were two games from women's tournaments, you can enjoy these games below:

[Event "14th ECC w"]

[Site "Ohrid MKD"]

[Date "2009.10.8"]

[Round "5"]

[White "Cmilyte,V"]

[Black "Iljushina,O"]

[Result "1-0"]

[Eco "A37"]

[Annotator ""]

[Source ""]

1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5 4.g3 g6 5.Bg2 Bg7 6.O-O Nge7 7.a3

O-O 8.b4 d6 9.Rb1 f5 10.b5 Na5 11.Ne1 e4 12.Qc2 Be6 13.d3 exd3

14.Nxd3 Bxc4 15.Rd1 Rc8 16.Nf4 Re8 17.h4 Qd7 18.e4 fxe4 19.Nxe4

Nf5 20.Bd2 Bb3 21.Rxb3 Nd4 22.Qa2 Naxb3 23.Ng5 Re5 24.Be3 c4

25.Bxd4 Nxd4 26.Rxd4 Re1+ 27.Kh2 Bxd4 28.Qd2 Re5 29.Qxd4 c3 30.Bd5+

Kg7 31.Be6 Qxb5 32.Qxd6 1-0

[Event "8th TCh-Eur w"]

[Site "Novi Sad SRB"]

[Date "2009.10.30"]

[Round "9"]

[White "Kosintseva,N"]

[Black "Galojan,L"]

[Result "1-0"]

[Eco "C91"]

[Annotator ""]

[Source ""]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.O-O Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3

O-O 8.c3 d6 9.d4 Bg4 10.d5 Na5 11.Bc2 c6 12.h3 Bc8 13.dxc6 Nxc6

14.Nbd2 d5 15.exd5 Qxd5 16.Qe2 Bb7 17.Bb3 Qd7 18.Ne4 Rad8 19.Ng3

Rfe8 20.Ng5 Nd5 21.Qh5 Bxg5 22.Bxg5 f6 23.Ne4 Qf7 24.Qxf7+ Kxf7

25.Nc5 Bc8 26.Red1 Nce7 27.Bd2 Kf8 28.a4 Nc6 29.axb5 axb5 30.Bc2

f5 31.Bd3 Nc7 32.b4 Rd5 33.f3 h6 34.Kf1 Red8 35.Ke2 Ke7 36.g4

Kf6 37.gxf5 Bxf5 38.Be4 Bxh3 39.Bxd5 Rxd5 40.Na6 Ne8 41.Bg5+

Ke6 42.Nc5+ Kd6 43.Ne4+ Ke6 44.Be3 Rxd1 45.Rxd1 Kf7 46.c4 bxc4

47.b5 Na5 48.Nc5 Ke7 49.Ra1 Nb3 50.b6 Nd6 51.Ra7+ Kd8 52.b7 Kc7

53.Na6+ 1-0

From December 1 to December 12 the 36th National India Women's Chess Championship took place. It was won by Harika Dronavalli (on the photo below)

with 8,5 points out of 11, followed by Meenakshi Subbaraman with 8 points. The full table can be seen here.

The Women's Invitational is taking place right now in London parallel to the super-GM chess tournament where Magnus Carlsen is in lead right now followed by Vladimir Kramnik. In the women's tournament Arianne Caoili is in the lead after 6 rounds with 5 points.

Even though the year is almost over, in the last days of December we will witness one more very interesting women's chess event that will take place from December 20 to December 28 in Moscow, Russia. The Russian Women's Superfinal will take place right at the very heart of Moscow in the Central Chess Club on Gogolevsky, 14.

The 2500+ participants of this event are the current Women's Russian Champion IM Nadezhda Kosintseva (Elo-rating - 2518), the elo-favorite of the tournament GM Tatiana Kosintseva (2522), a new chess mom Natalia Pogonina, on the photo below (2501)

who is very brave to participate in such a strong chess event just one month after giving birth to her son Nikolai (my heartfull congratulations to Natalia and I will keep my fingers crossed for her in this event). I will not be participating since I just came back from a very busy schedule and I will spend the holidays with my family.

Other participants of this prestigious event are IM Alisa Galliamova (2460) who is coming back to chess after 2 years of absence due to the birth of the second child, IM Marina Romanko and WFM Valentina Gunina (2446) who were members of the golden russian team at the recent European team championship, and also IM Elena Zaiatz (2390), WGM Tatiana Stepovaia (2384), WGM Anastasia Bodnaruk (2372) and WGM Manakova Marina (2344), the last 5 participants qualified through a very strong higher league.

I will keep you updated about this fascinating women's chess event. Get ready for exciting battles!

Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk

Women's World Chess Champion

www.chessblog.com

Women Chess Kaleidoscope

Various women's chess tournaments are taking place right now, or have just finished.

The Women's Ukranian Championship just finished. Tatjana Vasilevich and Doluhanova Evgenia shared first place, but Evgenia was better on tie-breaks.

The higher league of the Women's Russian Championship started today June 1 in Voronezh. Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (FIDE Elo rating 2450) is the elo-favorite of the tournament. Many young talented russian girls are playing as well. This tournament is the qualification for the Russian Women's Superfinal which is scheduled for December 2009. 5 top players at the end of the tournament will qualify for the Superfinal.

The Russian Championship among boys and girls under 8 just finished. It's amazing that today we have championships under 8! And probably many future GM's played in this event. Alexandra Obolentseva, a 7-year old girl became the Russian Champion among girls U-8. Last year Alexandra Obolentseva took part in my annual tournament "Alexandra Kosteniuk's Cup" that took place on November 29 and 30 in the Central Chess Club in Moscow and I even have a photo of her playing in my cup. I hope Alexandra will continue playing chess and working hard, I wish her all the best!

The final of the TOP 16 French teams took place in the Pyramides near Paris on May 31. Many strong female players took part in this event such as Almira Skripchenko, Inna Gaponenko, Sophie Milliet. The team of Evry (with Peter Svidler, Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Sophie Milliet and other strong players playing for this team) took first place.

Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk

Women's World Chess Champion

www.chessblog.com