Jermuk Women's Chess Grand Prix: Martha Fierro's nice win against Xu Yuhua
 IM Martha Fierro Baquero of Ecuador
Hello Everybody,
Jermuk Women's Grand Prix 2010 has been a disappointment for IM Fierro Baquero Martha L so far. But, she finally opened her account by scoring a full point against GM Xu Yuhua in the 7th round. It took Fierro some time to decide whether to give up two rooks for the Queen. Finally, she went for it and earned her first point at the Grand Prix.
Her victory got overshadowed in the excellent performance that GM Nana Dzagnidze has shown so far at the tournament.
Here is the Fierro-Yuhua game. You can run it in our pgnplayer or watch it in the flashplayer below.
PGN: 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 c5 4. exd5 Qxd5 5. Ngf3 cxd4 6. Bc4 Qd6 7. O-O Nf6 8. Nb3 Nc6 9. Nbxd4 Nxd4 10. Nxd4 a6 11. Re1 Bd7 12. Bg5 Qc5 13. Bxe6 fxe6 14. Bxf6 gxf6 15. Nxe6 Bxe6 16. Rxe6+ Kf7 17. Qd7+ Be7 18. Rae1 Rhe8 19. b4 Qxb4 20. R6e4 Qd6 21. Qf5 Rh8 22. Re6 Qc7 23. R1e4 h5 24. Rxe7+ Qxe7 25. Qd5+ Kf8 26. Rxe7 Kxe7 27. Qxb7+ Ke6 28. h4 Rac8 29. Qxa6+ Kf7 30. Qb7+ Kg6 31. Qe4+ Kg7 32. a4 Rc7 33. Qf5 Ra8 34. a5 Rca7 35. Qxh5 Rxa5 36. Qg4+ Kf7 37. Qd7+ Kg6 38. Qg4+ Kf7 39. Qc4+ Kg7 40. Qc7+ Kg6 41. g4 R8a7 42. Qd8 Kg7 43. Kg2 Rc5 44. h5 Rac7 45. Qe8 Rg5 46. Kg3 Kh7 47. f4 Rgg7 48. Qe4+ Kh8 49. Qe6 Rgf7 50. c4 Kg7 51. c5 Rce7 52. Qf5 Rc7 53. Qg6+ Kh8 54. c6 Rf8 55. h6 Rff7 56. Qe4 Rce7 57. Qd3 Rc7 58. Qc2 Rc8 59. Qg6 Rcc7 60. Kh4 Rf8 61. Kh5 Rff7 62. Qe4 Rce7 63. Qd5 Rf8 64. Qd6 Ref7 65. Kg6 Kg8 66. Qe6 1-0
From Alexandra Kosteniuk's Also see her personal blog at Labels: Martha Fierro, Women's Grand Prix, Xu Yuhua
Fighting chess at Jermuk Women's Grand Prix
 Hi Everyone!
The ladies at the Women's Grand Prix are playing some tough chess with no draws. In the second round on June 25 there was a decisive result on all the six boards! The results were as follows: - Xu Yuhua - Hou Yifan: 1-0
- Nana Dzagnidze – Elina Danielian: 1-0
- Maia Chiburdanidze – Pia Cramling: 1-0
- Tatiana Kosintseva – Baira Kovanova: 1-0
- Lilit Mkrtchian – Martha Fierro: 1-0
- Shen Yang – Antoaneta Stefanova: 0-1
You can check out key moments in all the matches here and the official tournament website here.
Meanwhile, here is a Sicilian-Paulsen game played between Xu Yuhua and Hou Yifan that saw a long positional battle between the two Chinese players. You can run it in our pgnplayer or watch it in the flash below.
PGN: 1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6 6. Be3 a6 7. Be2 Qc7 8. Qd2 b5 9. a3 Bb7 10. f3 Nc6 11. g4 Ne5 12. g5 Nfd7 13. f4 Nc4 14. Bxc4 Qxc4 15. Nb3 a5 16. Qd3 Be7 17. a4 Qxd3 18. cxd3 bxa4 19. Rxa4 Bd8 20. Ke2 h6 21. g6 fxg6 22. Rha1 Bc6 23. R4a2 g5 24. Nd4 gxf4 25. Bxf4 e5 26. Nxc6 exf4 27. Nd5 O-O 28. b4 f3+ 29. Kf1 Ne5 30. Nxd8 Raxd8 31. bxa5 Ra8 32. a6 Ra7 33. d4 Nc6 34. Ra4 Re8 35. Nc3 Rb8 36. Kf2 Rb2+ 37. Kxf3 Rb3 38. Rc1 Nb4 39. Kg4 Rxa6 40. Rxa6 Nxa6 41. Nd5 Rd3 42. Rc4 Kh7 43. Kf5 Rh3 44. Rc6 Nb8 45. Rc7 Rh5+ 46. Ke6 Rxh2 47. Kxd6 Rd2 48. Rc4 Ra2 49. e5 h5 50. Nb4 Rg2 51. e6 Rg6 52. d5 Rh6 53. Kc7 1-0
The standings after two rounds are as follows:
1. GM Dzagnidze Nana 2478 GEO 2 2. IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2477 ARM 2 3. GM Kosintseva Tatiana 2534 RUS 1½ 4. GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2560 BUL 1 5. IM Danielian Elina 2473 ARM 1 6. GM Chiburdanidze Maia 2514 GEO 1 7. GM Xu Yuhua 2484 CHN 1 8. WGM Kovanova Baira 2366 RUS 1 9. WGM Shen Yang 2452 CHN 1 10. GM Cramling Pia 2536 SWE ½ 11. GM Hou Yifan 2589 CHN 0 12. IM Fierro B. Martha L 2363 ECU 0
From Alexandra Kosteniuk's Also see my personal blog at Labels: Hou Yifan, Xu Yuhua
My team Monaco got SILVER!
The 25th European Club Chess Cup just finished a few minutes ago. The team of Spartak Vidnoe took the women's european club chess cup. Tatiana Kosintseva, Antoaneta Stefanova, Nadezhda Kosintseva, Kateryna Lahno and Evgenija Ovod played for this team. Above you can see the photo of the happy winner team from the closing ceremony.
My team of Cercle d'Echecs Monte Carlo took silver medals.
I took 4 out of 6 with a very nice win in the Dragon variation in the last round against Inna Gaponenko which I will certainly comment for you as well as will write a full report with many photos and commented games. But I will do it in the next 2-3 days since already in 2 hours I will need to leave the hotel and go to Skopje where I will take the train to Thessaloniki from where I will go to Halkidiki to take part in the 80th FIDE Congress as I am both a member of the FIDE Presidential Board and the Co-Chairman of the Commission for Women's Chess.
Since I haven't updated my blog for a while because I was playing and when I play I focus only on the tournament and the games many interesting women's chess events and tournaments have taken place.
The 2nd FIDE Women's Grand-Prix tournament that was held from September 27 to October 10 in Najing, China was won by the former women's world champion Xu Yuhua from China, who scored 8 points out of 11. Second place was taken by Nana Dzagnidze from Georgia, and the third place went to Zhao Xue from China. The full results and standings can be seen here.
In the women's US Chess Championship the defending champion Anna Zatonskih is leading the event with 4,5 out of 5, a full point ahead of the field. The championship has a very nice video and photo coverage that can be seen on the official site of the championship.
Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Labels: Eurocup, Monaco, Spartak, Xu Yuhua, Zatonskih
Women's World Chess Champions
 Hello everyone!
Since my blog is about women's chess I would like to start by introducing you to the whole list of women's world chess champions and the history of the women's world chess championships. This information is taken from Wikipedia.The Women's World Chess Championship is played to determine the women's world champion in chess. Like the World Chess Championship, it is administered by FIDE.
Unlike most sports, women are able to compete against men in chess, and so some women do not compete for the women's title.
The regulations of the women’s world chess championship can be found on the FIDE web-site.
The Women's World Championship was established by FIDE in 1927 as a single tournament held alongside the Chess Olympiad. The winner of that tournament, Vera Menchik, did not have any special rights as the men's champion did — instead she had to defend her title by playing as many games as all the challengers. She did this successfully in every other championship in her lifetime (1930, 1931, 1933, 1935, 1937 and 1939). Menchik died, still champion, in 1944 in a German air raid on Kent.
The next championship was another round-robin tournament in 1949-50 and was won by Lyudmila Rudenko. Thereafter a system similar to that of the men's championship was established, with a cycle of Candidates events (and later Interzonals) to pick a challenger to face the reigning champion.
The first Candidates tournament was held in Moscow, 1952. Elisabeth Bykova won and proceeded to defeat Rudenko with seven wins, five losses, and two draws to become the third champion. The next Candidates tournament was won by Olga Rubtsova. Instead of directly playing Bykova, however, FIDE decided that the championship should be held between the three top players in the world. Rubtsova won at Moscow in 1956, one-half point ahead of Bykova, who finished five points ahead of Rudenko. Bykova regained the title in 1958 and defended it against Kira Zvorykina, winner of a Candidates tournament, in 1959.
The fourth Candidates tournament was held in 1961 in Vrnjacka Banja, and was utterly dominated by Nona Gaprindashvili of Georgia, who won with ten wins, zero losses, and six draws. She then decisively defeated Bykova with seven wins, no losses, and four draws in Moscow, 1962 to become champion. Gaprindashvili defended her title against Alla Kushnir of Russia at Riga 1965 and Tbilisi/Moscow 1969. In 1972, FIDE introduced the same system for the women's championship as with the men's: a series of Interzonal tournaments, followed by the Candidates matches. Kushnir won again, only to be defeated by Gaprindashvili at Riga 1972. Gaprindashvili defended the title one last time against Nana Alexandria of Georgia at Pitsunda/Tbilisi 1975.
In 1976-1978 Candidates cycle, 17-year-old Maya Chiburdanidze of Georgia ended up the surprise star, defeating Nana Alexandria, Elena Akhmilovskaya, and Alla Kushnir to face Gaprindashvili in the 1978 finals at Tbilisi. Chiburdanidze proceeded to soundly defeat Gaprindashvili, marking the end of one Georgian's domination and the beginning of another's. Chiburdanidze defended her title against Alexandria at Borjomi/Tbilisi 1981 and Irina Levitina at Volgograd 1984. Following this, FIDE reintroduced the Candidates tournament system. Akhmilovskaya, who had earlier lost to Chiburdanidze in the Candidates matches, won the tournament was but was still defeated by Chiburdanidze at Sofia 1986. Chiburdanidze's final title defense came against Nana Ioseliani at Telavi 1988.
Chiburdanidze's domination ended at Manila 1991, where the young Chinese star Xie Jun defeated her, after finishing second to the still-active Gaprindashvili in an Interzonal, tying with Alisa Maric in the Candidates tournament, and then beating Maric in a tie-breaker match.
Susan (also known as Zsuzsa) Polgar won the 1992 Candidates tournament at Shanghai. The Candidates final - an 8 game match between the top two finishers in the tournament - was a drawn match between Polgar and Ioseliani, even after two tiebreaks. The match was decided by a lottery, which Ioseliani won. She was then promptly crushed by Xie Jun (8.5-2.5) in the championship at Monaco 1993.
The next cycle was dominated by Susan Polgar. She tied with Chiburdanidze in the Candidates tournament, defeated her easily in the match (5.5-1.5), and then decisively defeated Xie Jun (8.5-4.5) at Jaén 1996 for the championship.
In 1997, Russian Alisa Galliamova and Chinese Xie Jun finished first and second, but Galliamova refused to play the final match entirely in China. FIDE eventually awarded the match to Xie Jun by default.
However, by the time all these delays were sorted out, Polgar had given birth to her first child. She requested that the match be postponed. FIDE refused, and eventually set up the championship to be between Galliamova and Xie Jun. The championship was held in Kazan, Tatarstan and Shenyang, China, in 1999 and Xie Jun won with five wins, three losses, and seven draws.
In 2000, a knock-out event, similar to the FIDE men's title and held alongside it, was the new format of the women's world championship. It was won by Xie Jun. In 2001 a similar event determined the champion, Zhu Chen. Another knock-out, this one held separately from the men's event, in Elista, the capital of the Russian republic of Kalmykia (of which FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is president), from May 21 to June 8, 2004, produced Bulgarian Antoaneta Stefanova as champion. As with Polgar seven years prior, Zhu Chen did not participate due to pregnancy.
In 2006 the title returned to China. Interestingly, the new champion Xu Yuhua was pregnant during the championship.
In 2008, the title went to Russian grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk, who, in the final, beat Chinese prodigy Hou Yifan 2.5-1.5.
Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion http://www.chessblog.com/Labels: Bykova, Chiburdanidze, Gaprindashvili, Kosteniuk, Menchik, Polgar, Rubtsova, Rudenko, Stefanova, Women in Chess, Women's World Chess Champions, Xie Jun, Xu Yuhua, Zhu Chen
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