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hosted by Chess Queen™ & 12th Women's World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
US Chess Scoop from Philadelphia Chess Open - Video
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013
Hi everyone,
GM and Webster student Fidel Corrales Jiminez and IM and author Daniel Naroditsky tied for first at this year's Philadelphia Open. Here is the nice US Chess Scoop video chat with them. The video also features the youngest chess master in USCF history, 9-year-old Awonder Liang and WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, who is preparing for the US Women's Championship.
Strongest-Ever Chess Teams from US for Chess Olympiad 2012
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
Two strong teams are set to represent the United States at the 40th Olympiad in Istanbul from August 27th to September 10th, according to the US Chess Federation. The overall team is led by reigning US Chess Champion and World #5 Hikaru Nakamura. The team also includes GMs Gata Kamsky, Alexander Onischuk, Varuzhan Akobian and Ray Robson. GMs Yury Shulman and Ben Finegold will coach the team. Captain IM John Donaldson said, “The 2012 Olympiad will be super strong but our team, the first ever from the United States to average over 2700 FIDE, will have its chances if we play to the best of our ability.”
The women’s team includes reigning US Women’s Champ Irina Krush, Anna Zatonskih, Sabina Foisor, Tatev Abrahamyan and Rusudan (Rusa) Goletiani. FIDE Senior trainer Michael Khodarkovsky will be the captain and GM Melikset Khachiyan will coach. Khodarkovsky said, “I feel very good about the team, we all worked together before and I believe we have established a strong bond. Teams like China, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, India among favorites, but we will do our best to join them in the quest for medals.”
USCF Executive director Bill Hall said, “With the Olympics going on in London, this is a thrilling time to see our top players represent our country and root them on on their quest for medals. ”
Chess Life Online (CLO) editor Jennifer Shahade (former double US Chess Champion, writer, chess promoter, and more) says, "Look for CLO coverage throughout the Olympiad from award-winning journalist FM Mike Klein."
US Women's Chess Championship 2012 - Cool Chess Interviews With All the 10 Women Participants
Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012
Hi everyone,
Sit back and watch these great chess interviews with all the contestants of the US Chess Championship 2012! The participants are defending champion IM Anna Zatonskih, IM Irina Krush, WIM Iryna Zenyuk, WGM Sabina-Francesca Foisor, WGM Tatev Abrahamyan, IM Rusudan Goletiani, FM Alisa Melekhina, WIM Viktorija Ni, WFM Alena Kats, and WGM Camilla Baginskaite.
Tatev Abrahamyan Wins 2010 US Women's Fighting Chess Spirit Award
Tatev Abrahamyan creating "fighting chess"
Hi Everybody!
I want to give my heartfelt congratulations to Tatev Abrahamyan for her extreme fighting spirit at the 2010 U.S. Women's Championship!
Jennifer Shahade sent me the original link to her article where you can find a great fighting game she won against Alisa Melekhina.
Tatev Abrahamyan
Here is the text of the article:
At the 2010 US Women’s Chess Championship, Tatev Abrahamyan, 22, was awarded this year’s $1,000 Fighting Spirit Award.
The prize, co-sponsored by 9queens and goddesschess was judged by Women’s World Champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk.
Kosteniuk, who updated results of the US Women's on her blog, said “Congratulations to all the winners! The tournament was excellent an lots of "fighting chess" throughout!”
Kosteniuk singled out Tatev for her decisive results (she drew only one game in the event, to Anna Zatonskih), and her aggressive play. Kosteniuk’s favorite Abrahamyan game was her round three win against Alisa Melekhina.
You can copy and paste the pgn moves below in the pgnplayer.
Tatev is no stranger to fighting chess. In 2008 Tatev also won the goddesschess award at the US Women's Championship, held that year in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 2009, all of Tatev's games were decisive! For a survey of Tatev Abrahamyan's career since she moved to the Los Angeles area from her native Armenia, see the goddesschess blog.
In Irina Krush’s winner’s speech, she singled out her nearest competitors Tatev and Anna for motivating her to play her best chess. Abrahamyan scored 7.5/9, a score that is usually enough for at least a tie for first in a 10-player round robin. In this amazing event, Tatev actually only tied for second with last year’s Champion and goddesschess prize winner, Anna Zatonskih. Tatev had a 2621 USCF performance rating and raised her rating almost 60 points to 2430.
Although Tatev is more focused on earning IM and GM norms, it should also be noted that she picked up her final WGM norm. She also earned the 9queens scholarship prize (for a student under the age of 25) of $400 for a total bonus prize of $1400, which in combination with her 2nd-3rd place finish, gave her a takehome of $11,900.
9 Queens is a non-profit organization devoted to bringing chess to those most in need of its benefit, especially girls and at-risk youth. Goddesschess has been sponsoring Fighting Spirit Awards since 2007. See goddesschess.com for articles, links and much more with a special emphasis on the women of chess.
9 Queens co-founder and executive director Jean Hoffman presented the award at the US Women's Championship closing ceremony and she said,"If we want to encourage more women and girls to play chess, we need more prizes like the Fighting Chess Award. Not only does the award bring well-deserved recognition to Tatev and other professional female chess players, it also sends the message that competitive, confident and intelligent women should be celebrated."
Find out more about the US Women’s Chess Championship including games and photos on uschesschamps.com.
The Chicago Open concluded recently with GM Loek Van Wely winning the Open Section. He beat IM Sam Shankland in the final round. Van Wely finished with 7½/9, which was a half-point ahead of GMs Adams, Evgeny Najer, Victor Mikhalevski and Jiri Stocek.
But there were two women stars of the tournament also - WIM Tatev Abrahamyan who scored an IM norm and Viktorija Ni who scored a WIM norm.
Tatev Abrahamyan was born on January 13, 1988 in Yerevan, Armenia. She is the one of the youngest top-rated U.S. women's chess players. She tied for the 2005 U.S. Women's Chess Championship but lost the play-off match to Rusudan Goletiani. She now lives in Glendale, California. Tatev is an ethnic Armenian. She went to Clark Magnet High School, in La Crescenta.
Here is an interesting game by Abrahamyan from the fifth round of the tournament where she beat GM Alexander Shabalov.
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12th Women's World Chess Champion
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