It's All Local...

(Photo, above: yours truly, hard at work in her chess femme cave.  A sneaky Mr. Don snapped the shot in December, 2007).  Here in Wisconsin, June surrounded me with disaster after disaster - tornadoes - floods - sewer back-ups as the sanitary sewerage systems of shoreline communities were overwhelmed by 9 inches of rain that fell over a two day period in early June.  The bad news was non-stop.  With each new inch of rain, the suffering has increased .  Our third "100 year flood" since 1986 - tributaries continue surging downstream and along the mighty Mississippi, wiping out community after community.  Thirteen inches and counting - the most ever for a June since records started being kept 150 years ago.  Yesterday and early this morning three more storm fronts rumbled through, dumping at least another inch of rain on a lawn that, ironically, was showing signs of parching in the intense heat and humidity that have held sway as this never-ending storm system seems permanently rooted over the Midwest.  All those foot-acres of water lay just out of reach of thirsty grass roots.  I watched from an upstairs bedroom in alarm as downburst winds hit and the gigantic elm that overhangs my house in the backyard dangerously swayed as I've never seen it do in nearly 20 years living here.  The ground is saturated - roots have a precarious hold.  More storms threaten today.

Still, I have survived relatively unscathed.  I counted my blessings and an idea came to pass.  After talking it over, Goddesschess decided to fund special prizes of $100 this year in honor of each of the three behinds-the-scenes folks who do the day to day grunt-work for Goddesschess and the Goddesschess blog.  You can read about our choices for the prizes at the Goddesschess blog.  But - eek!!!! - we haven't been able to find a local chess event in Las Vegas, Nevada to which to offer the prize money!  Yeah, it's only $100, but darlings, you never know, it might make a big difference to a local chessplayer or two down the line.  We would appreciate any suggestions and contact information for local Las Vegas events you can provide - HELP!

Recent Events

Panamerican Girls Chess Championship
May 10 - 15, 2008
WFM Cori Deysi won the event with 7.5/9. [She came to my attention last month by her performance in the Benidorm Open. Chessville coverage of Benidorm Open, scroll down to article.]  

Here are the final standings:

Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2
1 WFM Cori T Deysi PER 2208 7,5 40,5 48,0
2 WIM Chirivi Yenny COL 2168 7,0 35,0 48,0
3 WIM Rivera Ingris COL 2144 6,0 28,5 49,5
4 WFM Herrera Milena COL 2007 5,5 29,5 45,5
5 Orozco Luz Elena COL 1946 5,5 25,5 42,0
6 Orozco Lina Yomayra COL 1955 5,0 27,0 44,0
7 Castrillon Melissa COL 1946 5,0 26,5 48,0
8 WFM Aliaga Fernandez Ingrid Y PER 2097 5,0 25,0 45,0
9 Guarin Daniela COL 1846 5,0 22,0 40,0
10 Aguilar Natalia Andrea COL 1966 4,5 19,0 33,0
11 Cardona Carolina COL 1919 4,0 20,5 40,5
12 Ocampo Garcia Derly COL 0 4,0 20,0 40,0
13 Galvis Maryory COL 0 3,5 18,5 32,0
14 Galvis Pedraza Selene COL 0 3,0 14,5 32,0
15 Rodriguez Sofia COL 1998 2,5 10,0 31,0
16 Chavez Diana Maria COL 1850 2,0 10,0 37,5
17 Cuervo Mendoza Lina COL 0 1,0 6,0 32,5

Chinese Chess Championships 
 May 29 - June 8, 2008
"U can't touch this..."  Hou Yifan yawns her way to the Chinese Women's Championship.  (Photo: Hou Yifan at the 2008 Ataturk International Women Masters Chess Championship).  Final cross-table:

Uruguayan Women's Championship
May 30  - June 8,  2008
Official Website
 I don't read or speak Spanish, but I think that La defensora del femenino 2007, MN Camila Colombo, repitió en este 2008 means that MN Camila Columbo successfully defended her 2007 title and won the Uruguayan Women's Championship again in 2008.  Here is the Women's final cross-table:

2008 Indian Women National "B" Chess Championship 
June 6 - 12, 2008
I'm extremely disappointed in the coverage this event received.  Several of India's up and coming chess femmes participated and the Indian Chess Federation website could not even be bothered to publish a final cross-table of results.  That's a crock of you know what, darlings!  Here are final standings I put together based on information from coverage at The Hindu Online.com.  (Photo: Eesha Karvade with her trophe).  

The top 9 finishers (these ladies move on to the National "A" Championship): 
1.  Eesha Karvade 8.5
2.  Mary Ann Gomes 8 
3.  Nisha Mohota 8
4.  Bhakti Kulkarni 8
5.  Swati Ghate 8
6.  Kruttika Nadig 8
7.  Pon N. Krithika 8
8.  Padmini Rout  8
9.  Amruta Mokal 8

Susan Polgar World Open for Girls 
June 7 - 8, 2008 
Las Vegas, Nevada
Susan Polgar Blog info.  U-19 Champion Rebecca Lelko and U-14 Champion Sayaka Foley both won 4-year out of state scholarships to Texas Tech University (worth approximately $36,000 each).  

Here are the final standings for each section:

Upcoming Events

Turkish İş Bank Chess League
June 23 - July 3, 2008
Official Website (in Turkish)
22 GMs, 18 IMs, 15 FMs, 15 WGMs, 2 WIMs and 2 WFMs among the players participating on the 16 teams.  I don't normally report on team or league events, but this report at Chessbase caught my eye.  The playing format requires that three chess femmes be part of the 10 boards for each team: board 5 is a woman's board, board 8 is reserved for an U-16 girl, and board 10 is for an U-14 girl.  The photographs in this pictorial report by WGM Anastasiya Karlovich (UKR 2212) and Özgür Akman are stunning.  Here are a quad - proving once again that chessplaying women are among the most beautiful in the world. (All photos from ChessBase article unless otherwise noted).

WFM Kubra Ozturk (TUR 2169)  playing for Besiktas	WIM Zehra Topel (TUR 2234)  playing for Istanbul Technical University
WIM Betül Cemre Yildiz (TUR 2205) playing for Adana Truva	WGM Anastasiya Karlovich (UKR 2212) playing for Pamukkale Üniversitesi Spor Kulübü

Ozturk has twice won Gold, in the 2006 European Youth Chess Championship -U-16 Girls in 2006 (9/10/06 - 9/19/06, Herceg Novi, SCG) and in the 2007 European Youth Chess Championship - U-16 Girls (9/14/07 - 9/23/07, Sibenik, CRO).  Topel is the current Turkish Women's Chess Champion and a three time U-18 Turkish champion. Eighteen year old Yildiz is a five-time Turkish Women's Chess Champion!  She recently competed in the 2008 Ataturk International Women Masters Chess Tournament with some of the best female chessplayers in the world (see the April, 2008 Chessville column).  Karlovich has not been able to distinguish herself among the powerhouse female players of Ukraine, such as Lahno (world 19), Ushenina (world 21) and Zhukova (world 34), but has been writing feature articles for Chessbase and may develop a career in chess reporting.

The 2008 Philadelphia International 
June 26 - 30, 2008 
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA)
Please - will Bill Goichberg hire someone who knows how to put a website together!  What a crappy mish-mash!
In the 39 player field, a large contingent of players from India (14 players) is visiting, including several chess femmes:  WGM Nisha Mohata (2400) (I think it's Mohota); WGM Swathi Ghate (2350); WIM Kiran Manisha Mohanty (2316); WGM Eesha Karavade (2303); WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy (2298); WIM Sai Meera (2227)  There are a couple of American chess femmes playing too:  WFM Alisa Melekhina (2208) and Shelly Mays (2066).  Go chess femmes, go!  Standings after Round 5 (chess femmes only):

(13) WGM Eesha Karavade, 3.0;  (17) WGM Nisha Mohata (sic), 2.5;  (24) WGM Swathi Ghate, 2.0;  (26) WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy, 2.0;  (28) WFM Alisa Melekhina, 2.0;  (32) WM Kiran Manisha Mohanty, 1.5;  (33) WIM Sai Meera, 1.5;  (37) Shelly Mays, 1.0.

2008 Women's World Chess Championship
August 28 - September 18, 2008
Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, RF (where???)
Okay, okay, I've seen the map, and I still can't get it fixed in my brain where Nalchik is.  Ohmygoddess!  Talk about a goddess-forsaken place, geez!  They don't even take credit cards.  Now there is something seriously wrong with a place that does not accept credit cards but demands cash up front from all of the chess femmes, etc. who will be descending (as into HELL) upon Nalchik for the WWCC.  THEY DON'T TAKE CREDIT CARDS?????  How does any civilized country in the world today operate without accepting credit cards?  Well - I just answered my own question - NONE!  Darlings, this place is NOT CIVILIZED.  The prize money offered is JUST enough to possibly be tempting and overcome the heebie-jeebies on the part of the qualifying players about traveling to such a place.  Still - it remains to be seen who shows up and who gives this event a pass.  After all, who the hell wants to earn 15 seconds of fame on CNN as a sniper victim splayed dead with her brains shot out on the main street of Nalchik, heh?  

You would think that holding a world chess championship in SUCH a place would generate some notice in the world press, wouldn't you?  But - noooooo.  Other than a nod at Mig's Daily Dirt chess blog which, by the way, filled me in on the background of Nalchik! (see "attacked in Nalchik lately") - there's been nothing mentioned in the conventional press.  Will the chess femmes get coverage in the mainstream press (ha! JanXena is having a pipe dream!) - or at the mainstream chess sites?  Well, you can count on coverage here at Chessville, and at Susan Polgar's blog.  I salute any chess femmes foolhearty brave enough to show up.

I have a further bone to pick.  Supposedly the information about the WWCC has been available online (yeah, right - I can tell you it was not) since June 3, 2008.  The deadline of JUNE 17, 2008 for submitting the usual crap to FIDE and paying forth much money in advance has passed.  Did any of the eligible chess femmes KNOW about this???  Even worse (can things possibly get worse - well - read on) this WWCC is going to be another one of those knock-out things.  Oh for Goddess sake.  Give me a break!  

I hope NONE of the chess femmes show up!- oh, well, forget about it darlings, this is all such a crock, I simply cannot write another word about it this month.

In the News

• June 28, 2008, ABS-CBN News Online:  Eight-year-old Samantha Glo Revita from Pangasinan (The Phillipines) recently brought home a gold, two silver and two bronze medals won in the 9th ASEAN Age Group Chess Competition held from June 8-18 in Vietnam.
   

• June 27, 2008, The Hindu Online: Mary outwits Abhijeet: Mary Ann Gomes stunned Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta in the second round of the Sort Open chess tournament on Wednesday.  Second round: Abhijeet Gupta (1) lost to Mary Ann Gomes (2).  [WIM Gomes (IND 2321), age 17, won the gold medal at the 2007 Asian Junior Chess Championships - Girls (December 13 - 21, 2007) with 7.5/9 (20 players)].  
   

• June 24, 2008, Chessbase: Kasparov's Master Class.  It's that time of year and GM Garry Kasparov's Chess Foundation (based in New York, New York) hosted the most promising young American chessplayers (under age 18) at a special week-long training session with The Champ himself.  Chess femmes included Alisa Melikhina and Alena Kats and at least one other unidentified chess femme, judging from the photographs.  I didn't see anything about this event at the Kasparov Chess Foundation website.  Come on webmaster, get with the program already!
   

• June 24, 2008, Chessbase:  Yet more opinions about the Krush-Zatonskih Armageddon game at the 2008 U.S. Women's Chess Championship. It's more of the same - nothing new.  Will this become a really lousy "never-ending story?"  Honestly, if America's chess sweetheart hadn't accused Zatonskih of "cheating," would we even be having this conversation?  There is absolutely no dispute - this kind of play-off decides titles in THE BIGS all the time.  So what's the issue here?  Is it the fact that it's WOMEN who were playing, and Irina got ticked off when things didn't break her way and decided to whine about it?  Is that what is really going on here?  Like - the WOMEN can't play like the MEN, they can't suck it up and take the consequences of losing on time. So, we must give America's Chess Sweetheart a break.  I don't know who the hell WE is - but I'm saying give ME a break! PLEASE!  Yet more on this subject (gag):
   

  • June 22, 2008, Susan Polgar's chessblog: Tom Braunlich responds to Phil Innes' letter.  Can we PLEASE be done with this, already? 

  • June 21, 2008, Susan Polgar's chessblog:  Chessville's Phil Innes submits an open letter with questions concerning the Armageddon play-off game between Krush and Zatonskih to the United States Chess Federation Executive Board.

  • June 21, 2008, Sun-Sentinel.com: Chess: A Knight's Tour by Bill Cornwall, commentary on the Armageddon game between IM Irina Krush and WGM Anna Zatonskih at the 2008 U.S. Women's Chess Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
     

• June 23, 2008, Mangalorean.com:  I wish the American press were as diligent in covering local and national chess events as is the Indian press.  This story caught my eye because she's so cute - a little doll of a Chess Princess.  In the Karnataka State Under 7 Boys and Girls Chess Championship organized by Bangalore district Chess Association (India) on behalf of United Karnataka Chess association from 20th to 22nd June 2008 at Bangalore, in Girls, Swathi Bhat secured Runner Up by scoring 3.5 points in 5 rounds.  Swathi Bhat has therefore qualified to represent Karnataka in the Upcoming National Under 7 Girls Chess Championship to be held in Mumbai.  Congratulations to Swathi Bhat. 
   

• June 22, 2008, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Susan Polgar's latest column:  With encouragement, girls can be as good as boys at chess.
   

• June 20, 2008, Del Rio News-Herald.com: 10-year-old seeking international chess title.  Chess Princess Claudia Munoz, who resides in Mexico but plays in international events under the US flag, will be representing the USA in the Pan-American Youth Festival International Chess tournament begins June 29 and continues through July 6.
   

• June 20, 2008, Chess, Goddess and Everything: Malaysian Women's Closed Chess Championship: Queen Control.  Story from the Malaysian Star Online.
   

• June 18, 2008, The Daily Review (insidebayarea.com):  Alisha Chawa, 7-year old Chess Princess! One of the largest trophies in Alisha's growing collection came less than two weeks ago, when she tied for first in her age group at the Las Vegas International Chess Festival, winning four of five games. Her achievement landed her a spot in the prestigious Susan Polgar National Invitational For Girls at Texas Tech in July, an event that will bring together the country's top young female players.
   

• June 16, 2008, Press Trust of India:  (Photo: Humpy receiving the 2007 Padma Shri Award) GM Koneru Humpy (IND 2603) was invited to play on the Indian Men's Olympiad Team in Dresden this year, but has opted out of the competition in favor of playing in the Cap d'Agde with a star-studded line-up:  Magnus Carlsen Norvège GM 2765; Teimour Radjabov Azerbaïdjan GM 2751; Vasily Ivanchuk Ukraine GM 2740; Ivan Cheparinov Bulgarie GM 2696; Hikaru Nakamura USA GM 2686; Anatoly Karpov Russie GM 2655; Maxime Vachier Lagrave France GM 2632; Fabiano Caruana Italie GM 2620; Humpy Koneru Inde GM 2603; Hou Yifan Chine WGM 2549; Sebastien Feller France GM 2540; Alexandra Kosteniuk Russie GM 2523; Marie Sebag France GM 2521; Katerina Lahno Ukraine GM 2479; and Almira Skripchenko France WGM 2443.  Like - whoa!  Double whoa!  Humpy says it's all a matter of bad timing - but is it really???
   

• June 15, 2008, The Times.co.za: Chatsworth chess whizz wants to test her talents in Spain (profile of 15 year old Seshni Govindasamy).  
   

• June 5, 2008, The Star (South Yorkshire, England):  Chess queen has all the right moves (profile of 13 year old Evie Hollingsworth).
   

• May 17, 2008, The Hindu Online (a late entry):  An interview with Aruna Anand, wife of GM Viswanathan Anand, on what it's like to be a Grandmaster's other half.

As always, you can find more news about women chess players at Chess Femme News at Goddesschess and the Goddesschess blog.

Archives

"Xena" (a/k/a Jan Newton) is one of the principals at Goddesschess, a popular "niche" website since its debut in 1999.  Goddesschess publishes articles from authors around the world as well as producing and publishing the principals' own work.  In addition to promoting views about the goddess side of chess, Goddesschess publishes news and articles of general interest about board games, research concerning the development and history of board games and archaeological discoveries related to board games.  Jan also regularly publishes women's chess news at Chess Femme News.  Enjoy!

Also, JanXena is experimenting with formatting and content,
please feel free to let Chessville know what you think, pro and con.

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