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Chessville
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Xena successfully graduated from the finishing school I’d banished her to last month after she attacked some juvenile skaters at a downtown skating rink in my hometown, and she (with the ever-faithful Horsey at her side) has embarked on a world tour. I sure wish I was independently wealthy (she’s socked away a ton of gold over the years). Oh well… Now that Xena has acquired a bit of "polish" I’ll work on her wardrobe next. Maybe a feather boa? A new pair of shoes? Tailored trousers (those balloon pants have to go, darlings!) and a long-sleeved blouse to cover up some of those battle scars! Xena is particularly interested in Iran (she still calls it Persia). She fondly recalls playing chatrang at the court of Shah Khosrow II, a long long time ago. In fact, it was Xena who passed along some interesting information that led me to write a short article for archaeologist Judith Weingarten’s blog about the possibility of chess being invented in Persia and not northern India, as most chess historians generally accept. As a fitting tribute to the ancient chatrang players of yesteryear, we’re all around the world this month with our news! Recent Events Scandinavian Ladies Open (a/k/a Stockholm Ladies Open), March 20 – 25, 2008 This great event featured 126 chess femmes fighting through 9 rounds. Whew! When it was all over the lady on top was IM Anna Muzychuk (SLO 2460), with 7.0/9 and a performance rating of 2574; she beat out IM Sopiko Khukhashvili (GEO 2387) and the highest rated chess femme in the event, veteran IM Elina Danielian (ARM 2480), who also finished on 7.0. Thanks to the sponsors of this event – we need more of these! Muzychuk won the "Ladies C Event" at the Moscow Open in February, so she’s maintaining her winning form.
With the depressed value of the dollar against
the euro these days, it’s awfully expensive for an American to play chess on
the European circuit. Top prize at the Scandinavian Ladies Open was 20,000
SEK. Players who finished in 16th- 30th places won 500
SEK. Everyone else finished out of the money. Using my trusty currency
converter, 1 USD = 5.9648 SEK, so Zatonskih earned $83.83 USD (more or
less). Winner Muzychuk earned $3,353 USD. Kind of puts things in
perspective, hey? (Photo: Anna Muzychuk, 2008 Moscow Open, winner of Scandinavian Ladies Open) The players listed here finished on 50% or above. As you can see, 60% of the players accomplished that! Congratulations to all of the intrepid chess femmes who competed in this event. (Complete Final Standings) Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 Rp
1 IM Muzychuk Anna SLO 2460 7,0 49,0 54,0 2574 2008 Ataturk International Women Masters Chess Tournament, March 10 – 20, 2008
My disappointment over not seeing chess legend Chiburdanidze play was more than made up by the level of chess played by the chess femmes who participated. Talk about a tough event, geez! The ladies went out of their way to beat-up each other – few "courtesy" draws - ahhhh, such a refreshing change from the men-only events…
Turkish transplant Ekaterina Atalik, the home team favorite, did Turkey proud by finishing in 4th place overall – well, darlings, I told you I thought she would do well! Guess I’m a psychic, hey? NOT! LOL! (See my "prediction" about Atalik’s performance in the March, 2008 column.)
No. Name FED Rtg Pts Rtg+/-
23rd Reykjavik Open, March 3 – 11, 2008
Final standings (after 9 round, winner plus women’s final standings):
Upcoming Events 2008 Women’s World Chess Championship Recently as I was checking my favorite chess websites for news on women’s chess, I found information at Susan Polgar’s popular blog about the scheduled Women’s world Chess Championship, which she had learned from an article at Chessbase. Thanks to Susan Polgar for publicizing this information and thanks to Chessbase for the initial report. I call this event "scheduled" because – although it is supposed to begin on June 18th in Argentina, no official website has been posted at FIDE (I checked again while I was compiling this column on March 29, 2008; I have checked periodically, looking for news from FIDE). No venue has been listed. No prize structure has been given. This is the premiere event in women’s chess – and there’s nothing published on it! What gives? Well, darlings, I was not holding my breath that this event would ever take place. Kirsan doesn't care about women's chess. He’s more interested in aliens. Now we know why there hasn’t been any news! It’s because Argentina crapped out. But – lo and behold – "Don’t cry for me, Argentina" because Chessbase reported that the no-news 2008 Women's World Chess Championship has perhaps been rescued by a last minute offer from Turkey to host the event after Turkey successfully hosted the fabulous Ataturk International Women Masters Tournament. The story gets even better! Can you imagine – Iran – IRAN – offered to host the Women’s World Chess Championship after Argentina bowed out – and not a word of this was published anywhere! It turns out that Iran demanded that all of the women players wear head scarves – even non-Muslim women – and no Jewish players would be allowed to play. Say what? What a bunch of frigging hypocrite Nazis! Darlings – I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried! The a-holes in charge of Iran have pushed what was formerly a country with a glorious past, where men and women were equals, back into the Dark Ages. Here’s the news story, published at the Turkish Daily News on March 29, 2008. I can only say thank you to the government of Turkey (specifically, the Sports Ministry) and to Isbank for stepping forward with an offer to host the Women’s World Chess Championship. 2008 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship, May 13 – 21, 2008 Tulsa, Oklahoma The USCF website recently published an article about the "qualifier" event for the 2008 U.S. Chess Championships. To quote directly from USCF's press release: the top female finisher will receive a nod to the Women's Championship. Math tiebreaks will be used to determine those slots, if necessary. The following women played in the Qualifier (104 players), vying for the sole wild-card spot in the Women's Championship (final standings given): (31) WFM Iryna Zenyuk 4.0/7; (41) WFM Chouchanik Airapetian 3.5; (46) WFM Bayaara Zorigt 3.5; (48) WFM Hana Itkis 3.5; (64) Jennifer Acon 3.0; (78) WIM Mila Mokryak 2.5; (92) Julie O'Neill 2.0; and (94) WIM Alexey Root 2.0. Dr. Alexey Root was blogging from the tournament for the US Chess Federation website and said: Iryna Zenyuk was the top woman, with 4 of 7. She won $1000, and the Wild Card spot. However, she may qualify for the women's based on rating. CLO will report on which of the seeded players for the women's have declined, and whether Iryna therefore gets a rating spot. If she does, then Chouchanik Airapetian, who had the best tiebreaks of the women finishing with 3.5 of 7, will get an invitation to the May event. Information on the The Frank K. Berry U.S. Women’s Chess Championship: Prizes -$25,000Seeding - The 10 contenders for the title will be determined as follows: U.S. Women's Champion (Irina Krush) 6 Top-Rated Women players on the March Rating List 3 Wild Cards selected by Frank K. Berry (One of these wild cards will be top female finisher at the Qualifier Open).
As of the date of writing this column, the March, 2008 ratings list has not been published at USCF. Here are the ladies who would qualify from the February, 2008 ratings list (Krush is the #1 rated woman in the USA, she already qualifies as the winner of the 2007 Championship):
2 Zatonskih, Anna (12873912) NY USA 2490 In 2007, Goddesschess sponsored a $300 brilliancy prize at the 2007 U.S. Women's Chess Championship, which was won by one of my favorite chess femmes, Liz Vicary. This year Goddesschess is sponsoring a $350 "Fighting Chess" award/prize for the best game among the women at the 2008 U.S. Women's Chess Championship. We are incredibly pleased to announce that, thanks to an introduction effected by Chessville’s very own Parrot between GM Susan Polgar and yours truly, GM Polgar has graciously agreed to be the judge of the game best fitting the "Fighting Chess" title in the style epitomized by the Polgar sisters. The prize will be awarded under the auspices of the Susan Polgar Chess Foundation. All the Goddesschess folks are just tickled pink about this! Whoooo whoooo! We intend even bigger and better things in the future. Hey – our chess femmes deserve it! 2008 3rd Kolkata Open, March 23 – April 2, 2008 One of my favorite chess femmes, GM Koneru Humpy (IND 2612) is playing in the Kolkata Open on the top boards, against an overwhelming force of GMs and IMs! Here's a list of the 114 players – I’ve tried to pick out the chess femmes (posted below): SNo. First Name Last Name Title Rating FED 3 Humpy Koneru GM 2612 IND 29 Nisha Mohota WGM 2409 IND 75 Manisha Mohanty Kiran WIM 2270 IND 78 Mary Ann Gomes WIM 2255 IND 88 Rout Padmini WIM 2210 IND 89 Kruttika Nadig WIM 2208 IND I'm sure there are several other chess femmes playing but I’m not very good at picking out chess femme names from other countries where the language isn’t familiar – India and China pose particular problems for yours truly! Note to all webmasters out there – please put a big "F" after a chess femme’s name – it makes my (and your readers’) work a lot easier! In the News
2008 Bulgarian Women’s Chess Championship
2008 Russian Under-20 Girls’ Chess Championship
2008 Ukrainian Under-20 Girls’ Chess
Championship
2008 Mediterranean Flowers WGM Tournament
65h Georgian Women’s Chess Championship
2008 Russian Women’s First League
March 23, 2008: Dylan Loeb McClain, who uncritically quotes Sam Sloan (geez!), got one thing right when he published this article about 14 year old Hou Yifan. March 16, 2008: The Economic Times of India A great article on international chess star IM Tania Sachdev of India. Wow – a woman makes The Economic Times, all right! March 13, 2008: A sort of overview article on the Ataturk International Women Masters Chess Tournament from Today’s Zaman, with good coverage of some of Turkey’s up and coming young chess femmes. They’re all so beautiful! March 6, 2008: GM Susan Polgar receives a "Women in History" Award from the City of New York.
As always, you can find more news about women chess players at Chess Femme News at Goddesschess and the Goddesschess blog.
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(Photo:
Hou Yifan, 2008 Ataturk International Women Masters) Darlings, I can’t tell
you how disappointed I was to learn that GM Maia Chiburdanidze did not play
in this event after all. Sigh. It seems instead she sent a
proxy, IM Lela Javakhishvilia (GEO 2455), who finished in 5th
place overall with 4.5/9.
(Photo:
GM Pia Cramling, 2006 Gibtelecom, from chesscity.com) Teen phenom WGM Hou
Yifan (CHN 2527) who is on pace to clear the 2600 ratings hurdle this year
(a major event for chess femmes – currently only chess femmes GM Judit
Polgar and GM Koneru Humpy are rated above 2600), finished in clear first,
one point ahead of several other illustrious players, including GM Pia
Cramling. Is Hou on pace to become the first world chess champion who
is female? She just turned 14 – she’s got plenty of time to mature and
continue to increase the "level" of her game. She has already proven
that she is not afraid to take on and mix it up with the top-rated chess
hommes of the world. All good experience under her "chess belt."
Keep an eye on this young lady, chess fans. And thanks to the
photographers, who have finally given us some current photos of Hou! I
cannot tell you how sick to death I was of seeing that photo with those
tacky hair clips which – by the way – I did NOT use in my
(Photo:
Legend-in-the-making Hou Yifan [left] and legend GM Pia Cramling [right],
2008 Ataturk International Women Masters)
(Photo:
Dronavalli Harika and Anna Ushenina, 2008 Ataturk International Women
Masters) This was not a good event for Harika (-4), Zhu Chen (-16!),
Ushenina (-18!) - a nasty fall from her excellent play at Aeroflot, and
Krush (-11). Harika (she prefers this over her family name, Dronavalli),
Ushenina and Krush have been playing non-stop since the beginning of the
year, and wear-and tear may be showing. Everyone beat up on
sacrificial lamb WGM Betul Cemre Yildiz – but I’ll bet she’s still smiling
after playing against so many top-rated chess femmes – she didn’t just roll
over and play dead, either. What an experience for her and,
considering the competition, she didn’t do too badly.
(Photo:
Elizabeth Paehtz, 
(Photo:
Rusudan Goletiani, 2008 Scandinavian Ladies Open, a candidate for the Frank
K. Berry U.S. Women's Chess Championship.)
