Chessville News - Les Echecs des Femmes - By and about Women in Chess - by Jan Newton

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Les Echecs
des Femmes

May, 2008

Hola darlings! There is a TON of news from April but first I have to tell you - I discovered counterfeit Xenas for sale at E-bay. Eek! Purporting to be "Harem Xenas" - they are wearing black veils across their faces. Ha! Any self-respecting Harem babe would wear a gold veil, to match her golden sandals and arm bracelets. I suspect the work of Asian counterfeiters - they don't know a thing about women's fashion and would put the fake Xenas in black veils. Geez! These fraudulent Ebay Xenas are bad enough, but I have since discovered that there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fraudulent Xena action figures out there. Oh the horror, the horror!

The good news is that Xena has ditched those tacky pants she's been wearing for the past 2,500 years because she was absolutely appalled by the sight of all of the fraudulent Xenas wearing her clothes! The bad news is that she hasn't found anything else she really likes and is going around the house these days in a a rather ratty looking pink towel. Personally, I don't care but - the neighbors are beginning to talk...

Recent Events

3rd Kolkata Open
March 23 - April 2, 2008
Kolkata, India
As mentioned last month, GM Koneru Humpy participated in this event and she did just fine against the guys, finishing in 6th place with 7.0/10 and a prize of 28,000 Rupees. Here are the top 10 finishers (114 players):

1 GM Laznicka Viktor 8½ 200000
2 GM Sasikiran Krishnan 8½ 160000
3 GM Safin Shukhrat 7½ 120000
4 GM Sandipan Chanda 7 100000
5 GM Rahman Ziaur 7 50000
6 GM Koneru Humpy 7 28000
7 Nolte Rolando 7 24000
8 GM David Alberto 7 18000
9 IM Arun Prasad S 7 16000
10 IM Ashwin Jayaram 7 14000

Several other chess femmes played too. Here are their final standings:

46 Udeshi Aditya 2331 IND 5.5
62 WGM Mohota Nisha 2409 IND 5.0
68 WIM Padmini Rout 2210 IND 4.5
69 WIM Nadig Kruttika 2208 IND 4.5
84 WIM Gomes Mary Ann 2255 IND 4.0
102 Anuprita Patil 2062 IND 3.5
105 WIM Kiran Manisha Mohanty 2270 IND 3.0

Magistral Ruy Lopez (Merida)
April 5 - 11, 2008
Humpy moved from Kolkata to Merida, Spain, to play in the Magistral event at the Ruy Lopez Chess Festival. Humpy and Hou Yifan were the female contingent and, I'll be blunt, seemingly overmatched by the male players that included Mickey Adams (2726), Zhang Pengxiang (2640) and Gabriel Sargissian (2676). Hou took her lumps but - ah ha! - Humpy scored better than 50% (4.5/7). Indeed, the guys had a tough time too, with Adams finishing at 5.5/7 and Zhang at 5.0/7. It was the lower rated players who got beat-up on and, somewhat surprisingly given his recent performances, young Fabiano Caruana seemed off form in the main event, but he bounced back to win the rapid chess contest.

Final Standings Magistral:
1. Adams, Michael g ENG 2726 5.5 2826
2. Zhang Pengxiang g CHN 2640 5 2767
3. Sargissian, Gabriel g ARM 2676 4.5 2706
4. Koneru, Humpy g IND 2612 4.5 2715
5. Caruana, Fabiano g ITA 2598 2.5 2513
6. Granda Zuniga, Julio E g PER 2588 2 2458
7. Hou Yifan wg CHN 2527 2 2467
8. Perez Candelario, Manuel m ESP 2537 2 2465

(Photo: drawing positions at the Magistral, Humpy looks uber-fashionable in an Indian-style embroidered pants-suit that suits her coloring. Hair and jewelry are in perfect balance, flattering and feminine without being gaudy. Well done, Humpy.) Humpy had an excellent performance rating of 2715, 103 points above her ELO (compare to the spread for Adams {100 points} and Zhang {127 points}). Humpy's performance was impressive enough to merit comment by Mig Greengard at his Chess Ninja blog: This was an impressive showing for Humpy Koneru, who is concreting her 2600 status. 2700, her performance rating in Merida, is another story at an ancient 21 years of age. What do you think? I've said before that if you aren't in the top 10 by the time you're 21 you likely never will be. (Barring late jumps to edge in for a list or two, of which there are many, who mostly serve to prove the rule.) This doesn't hold quite as true for the top 20, of course. Still, not many late bloomers in that group either. ...Perhaps the formulation "if you aren't in the top 20 by age 21 you'll never make it to the top 10" is more precise.

What I think is that Humpy is just starting to come into her own. As Judit Polgar, the #1 woman in the world, continues to cut back her appearances, Humpy (who is currently #2 on the Women's FIDE Ratings List) will be in more demand and will continue to play in events where she is challenged by highly rated male players on the international circuit. I'm sure she's also got in the back of her mind the new kids on the block - there is pressure now from behind as never before from several women whose ELO ratings are getting up into the 2500's and beyond, and it ain't all "ratings inflation" (unlike the silly ratings I see pinned on players by the USCF in the USA, what a joke!) For instance, France's Marie Sebag (you'll read about her below) earned her third GM norm for her performance in the 2008 European Individual Chess Championships and has pushed her ELO up into the mid 2500s and in the next FIDE ratings period will join the ranks of FIDE vetted GMs. Humpy is well aware of her competition, and she's learning and improving her game and pushing her boundaries more than ever.

Here are Humpy's game by game results:

Game 1: Koneru 1/2/1/2 Sargissian
Game 2: Adams 1/0 Koneru
Game 3: Koneru 1/0 Granda
Game 4: Koneru 1/2/1/2 Yifan
Game 5: Zhang 1/2/1/2 Koneru
Game 6: Koneru 1/0 Candelario
Game 7: Caruana 0/1 Koneru

Rapid Chess Results: (1) Caruana, 7.5; (6) Hou Yifan, 6.5; (8) Koneru Humpy, 6.5 (69 players).

Dutch Women's Championship
April 2 - 13, 2008

This was Peng Zhaoqin's tournament to lose. Indeed, she's a perennial winner of this event: 2007 (8.0/9), 2006 (8.5/9), 2005 (8.0/10), 2004 (8.0/10); she also won in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2002.

Final standings after 9 Rounds:

Nr	Naam	Rating	Score
1	GM Peng, Zhaoqin	2455	8.0
2	FM Schuurman, Petra	2295	6.5
3	IM Lanchava, Tea	2365	5.5
4	WIM Bensdorp, Marlies	2268	5.0
5	WGM Muhren, Bianca	2297	5.0
6	Van Nies, Pauline	2184	4.5
7	Haast, Anne	2020	3.5
8	Middelveld, Martine	2040	3.5
9	Munnik, Talitha	2002	2.0
10	WFM Bensdorp, Laura	2085	1.5

GM Peng Zhaoqin (Photo from 2006 BDO Tournament, by Fred Lucas, from Chessbase)

WIM Marlies Bensdorp (Photo from Chessbase, 2006 Essent) Marlies and Laura are twins

WFM Laura Bensdorp (Photo from Chessbase, 2007 Dutch Women's Chess Championship)

10th Dubai Open
April 6 – 15, 2008
130 players battled over the boards, including several chess femmes. Here are a few of the lesser known chess femmes who played in the event:


Photo: WGM Zhang Jilin, Chessbase, 2005 World Junior Championships	Photo: WGM Mohota Nisha IND 2400, 2006 Commonwealth Championship, from Chessbase	Photo: WGM Elena Partac MDA 2125, 2007 Predeal International Chess Festival, from Chessbase

The event was won by the young GM Wesley So (2540) of the Phillipines with 7.0/9. Here are the chess femmes' final standings (and prizes won):

18 35 IM Sachdev, Tania 2423 IND 6 ($520)
45 51 WGM Sergeeva, Maria 2317 KAZ 5 ($500)
48 64 WIM Pourkashiyan, Atousa 2268 IRI 5 ($500) (see photo below in "In the News")
56 38 WGM Mohota, Nisha 2400 IND 5 ($500)
65 54 WGM Ramaswamy, Aarthie 2298 IND 4½
66 44 WGM Zhang, Jilin 2361 CHN 4½
72 69 WIM Meera, Sai 2227 IND 4½
73 98 Anuprita, Patil 2062 IND 4½
75 67 WGM Smokina, Karolina 2234 MDA 4
76 88 WGM Partac, Elena 2125 MDA 4
80 91 WFM Swati, Mohota 2114 IND 4
87 78 WIM Ghader Pour, Shayesteh 2177 IRI 4
108 101 WFM Hakimifard, Ghazal 2055 IRI 3
112 122 WFM Abdulaziz, Eman 0 UAE 3 ($240)
116 121 WFM Abdulaziz, Amal 1639 UAE 3 ($240)
120 119 WFM Bukhashem, Fayeqa S 1733 UAE 2½

IM Tania Sachdev continued her winning chess ways by placing very well in this event (18th overall). She was scheduled to play at the Benidorm Open but didn't appear, no doubt taking a well-deserved rest!

2008 European Individual Chess Championships
April 21 - May 3, 2008
One of the great stories of this Championship from this chess femme's perspective is that IM Marie Sebag (FRA 2521) earned her third and final GM norm and picked up 9.9 ratings points by finishing with 6.5/11, good enough for 71st place out of 337 players in the Men's competition! Congratulations to Marie. She was the only chess femme playing in the Men's event. Talk about guts!

Darlings, there were plenty of great stories in the Women's competition too. GM Kateryna Lahno does a repeat of her 2007 title! This is a first in the history of the European Individual Chess Championships! I could write a novel - but I won't (can't - the editors would shoot me). Here are the final top 20 and the prize money awarded (in Euros):

Rank Name IRtg FED Pts BH. BH. vict Fide Rtg+/-
1 GM Lahno Kateryna 2479 UKR 8.5 62.0 75.0 6 53.0 19.0 (6,000 E)
2 IM Ushenina Anna 2474 UKR 8.0 65.0 79.0 5 52.0 15.5 (5,000 E)
3 WGM Zhukova Natalia 2450 UKR 8.0 63.5 76.5 5 51.0 19.2 (4,000 E)
4 IM Cmilyte Viktorija 2466 LTU 8.0 62.0 75.5 6 51.5 14.8 (3,000 E)
5 IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2413 ARM 8.0 59.5 74.0 6 48.0 21.1 (2,000 E)
6 IM Skripchenko Almira 2443 FRA 8.0 58.0 71.0 5 48.0 15.7 (1,900 E)
7 IM Dembo Yelena 2429 GRE 8.0 57.0 68.5 6 46.5 13.1 (1,800 E)
8 GM Cramling Pia 2539 SWE 7.5 61.0 74.5 5 50.0 -0.7 (1,700 E)
9 WGM Pogonina Natalija 2470 RUS 7.5 60.0 73.5 5 47.0 9.5 (1,600 E)
10 IM Muzychuk Anna 2486 SLO 7.5 59.0 72.0 4 49.5 6.6 (1,500 E)
11 GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2538 BUL 7.5 58.5 72.5 6 47.5 -0.7 (1,400 E)
12 IM Dzagnidze Nana 2443 GEO 7.5 58.5 72.5 5 47.5 10.1 (1,300 E)
13 IM Danielian Elina 2479 ARM 7.5 57.0 69.5 6 46.5 6.8 (1,200 E)
14 IM Lomineishvili Maia 2400 GEO 7.5 57.0 68.5 5 43.5 13.9 (1,100 E)
15 WGM Demina Julia 2337 RUS 7.5 56.5 69.0 6 40.5 24.3 (1,000 E)
16 IM Socko Monika 2505 POL 7.5 53.5 66.0 5 42.5 -5.4
17 IM Houska Jovanka 2390 ENG 7.0 63.0 76.0 5 46.5 15.5
18 IM Paehtz Elisabeth 2449 GER 7.0 57.5 69.5 4 44.5 3.4
19 GM Hoang Thanh Trang 2477 HUN 7.0 57.0 70.0 4 41.5 -4.2
20 IM Repkova Eva 2381 SVK 7.0 56.0 68.5 5 42.0 6.2

What a bummer! Stefanova finishes with 7.5 points and loses ELO points, as do Monika Socko, Pia Cramling and Hoang Thang Trang! This is simply amazing!
What a hoot! Stefanova was elected Queen of the Women's Championship! The fans (who voted in droves) just love this woman - well, what's not to love? She also won a spot to the next World Cup.
Darlings, if you've been reading this column since the beginning of the year, by now you will be familiar with these names: Ushenina, Zhukova, Cmilyte, Skripchenko, Dembo, Cramling, Muzychuk, Stefanova. Some pleasant (and well-earned) surprises: England's Jovanka Houska had an excellent tournament, but finished out of the money (boo, hiss, boo!) On the plus side, she gained 15.5 ELO points! Hooray! Germany's Elisabeth Paehtz had a great result, but very little to show for it in terms of ELO points.
The competition was fierce. 1 fricking point separated #1 from #15!
Check out the Featured Chess Femme below - this is one story from the Championship that has to be told!
Chessdom has tons of photographs - much better quality (I think) than those at the official website. Although - if you have time, check out the photographs in the Official Bulletins at the official website - beautifully done and some of the games of the gals and the guys are analyzed.
The official photo of the top three women finishers was absolutely horrid and I refuse to publish it here - yech! Suffice to say that Lahno (gold), Cmilyte (silver) and Ushenina (bronze), are gorgeous women:

Kateryna Lahno (Gold)

Victoria Cmilyte (Silver)

Anna Ushenina (Bronze)

Upcoming Events

2008 Frank K. Berry U.S. Women's Chess Championship
May 13 - 21, 2008
Tulsa, Oklahoma

Participants:

1 IM Irina KRUSH 2515 Current Champion
2 IM Anna ZATONSKIH 2490 Rating
3 WGM Katerine ROHONYAN 2318 Rating
4 WIM Batchimeg TUVSHINTUGS 2289 Rating
5 WFM Tatev ABRAHAMYAN 2280 Rating
6 WIM Tsagaan BATTSETSEG 2251 Rating
7 WFM Iryna ZENYUK 2205 Qualifier
8 WFM Chouchanik AIRAPETIAN 2143 Wild Card
9 Courtney JAMISON 2064 Wild Card
10 WM Esther EPSTEIN* 2194 (replacement for Rusa Goletiani)

Prizes:

$25,000 Guaranteed Minimum:
1- $5,000
2- $4,000
3- $3,000
4- $2,750
5- $2,500
6- $2,000
7- $1,750
8- $1,500
9- $1,250
10- $1,250

Monroi is providing website space and game coverage this year. Monroi reports that the winner will be able to call herself "U.S. Women's Champion" - but evidently this does not guarantee the winner a spot on the Women's Olympiad Team - assuming the U.S. fields a women's team this year. I find that very troubling, given what we know happened to 2003 U.S. Women Chess Champion Anna Hahn. I couldn't find any information online about why Goletiani is not playing, but I'm sorry she won't be part of this championship. Esther Epstein has been a steadfast and stalwart chess presence in the US for many years (she was U.S. Women's Champion in 1991 with Irina Levitina and held the title outright in 1997), but Goletiani's presence would have ramped up the competition several notches.

Tooting the Goddesschess horn, just a reminder darlings that the folks at Goddesschess are sponsoring a $350 "Fighting Chess" award this year and, as a result of an introduction arranged by Chessville's very own Parrott, GM Susan Polgar has graciously agreed to choose the winner of the Goddesschess prize!

In the News

Speaking of Susan Polgar - she's in the news all over the place these days, rather like the Scarlet Pimpernel (to paraphrase the famous lines from the classic movie with Leslie Howard and Merle Oberon): "She's here, she's there, she's everywhere..."

Susan Polgar announced at her blog that it's now official - she will be the Dresden Chess Olympiad "Official Ambassador" and in charge of international media for the Olympiad. Paul Truong will be the official Olympiad photographer.
Under the auspices of SPICE and the Susan Polgar Foundation, SP is putting together the highest rated FIDE-rated invitational ever hosted in the USA, the 2nd SPICE Cup
SP and Paul Truong have joined the ranks of the Chess Collectors International and, in conjunction with the CCI meeting in Florida, the U.S. Senior Chess Championship and the induction of GMs deFirmian, Christiansen and Benjamin into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame, SP held a simul and attended various meet and greets. Here is SP looking gorgeous in this photo with 2008's U.S. Senior Chess Champion, IM Larry Kaufman.
The Third Annual Susan Polgar World Open Championship for Girls and the Second Annual Susan Polgar World Chess Challenge for Boys will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, June 6-8, 2008, in conjunction with the Las Vegas Chess International Festival at the Riviera Hotel and Casino complex. More info.
Who the heck is that with Susan Polgar - whoa! So, THAT is what Kelly Atkins looks like? Okay, no snide comments from the peanut gallery...

Serbian Women's Championship
March 28 - April 9, 2008

Chicago, Chicago...The 1st North American Challenge Match (March 31-April 3) featured current and two-time U.S. Women's Champion IM Irina Krush (USA 2479) and IM Lilit Mkrtchian (ARM 2413), four time Armenian women's champion. Story at USCF (April 1, 2008) - Betsy Dynako has a couple of really nice photos of Krush and Mkrtchian. Krush won the event by 2.5/1.5. Mkrtchian went on to have a very good performance at the 2008 European Individual Women's Chess Championship. Krush went on to play at the Gausdal Classic, where she didn't perform well, finishing in 8th place out of 10 with 3.5

Iranian Women's Chess Championship
(Photo, right: WIM Atousa Pourkashiyan IRI 2282, 2008 Iranian Women's Chess Championship, from Chessbase.de) The Iranian Championships took place 18th-27th February 2008. WIM Atousa Pourkashiyan won the women's event with 7.5/11. Story and photos at Chessbase. Atousa also played in the 10th Dubai Open, where she finished in 48th place and won $500.

The Future of Women's Chess in the USA! Great photo at Susan Polgar's chessblog: WGM Rusa Goletiani (USA 2383) and IM Anna Zatonskih (USA 2458) and their daughters Sophie and Sofia.

5th de Balagne International Open
April 6 - 12, 2008
Final standings of the chess femmes (64 players, 9 rounds):
The event was won by Stefan Macak (SVK 2342), with 8.0/9.
28 GADARINIAN Caroline FRA 1910 4.5
43 STUBBE Alicia 1570 FRA 4.0
44 COSTA Elodie 1480 FRA 4.0
49 GRAZIANI Virginie 1607 FRA 3.5
61 SUSINI Lisa 1520 FRA 2.5
64 CESARI Cathy 1240 FRA 1.0

Latestchess.com has an April 10, 2008 interview with GM Alexandria Kosteniuk, with lots of photos of the lovely chess master.

Gulfnews.com
April 12, 2008: Mozah Al Mansouri, a chess champion. Eight year old Mozah has what it takes to win: Nobody can create a chess champion by coaching only. It is important that the player has the talent. Mozah has it in plenty and I predict a glorious future for her if she continues to take part in tournaments and gains more experience from higher rated players.

From Yahoo News India, April 23, 2008
Ficci Awards 11 Young Women Achievers: IM Tania Sachdev wins a special award.

From the website of the 2008 European Individual Chess Championships
A must read interview with the legendary GM Nona Gaprindashvili, who was awarded a GM title by FIDE in 1978 by virtue of her past performances and particularly her outstanding results at the 1977 Lone Pine tournament in the USA.

The Philadelphia Inquirer
May 4, 2008: Marciene Mattleman uses chess and everything else she can think of to help kids in Philadelphia.

Featured Chess Femme

Narmin Kazimova (AZE 2071)

When I first saw her name show up at #9 on the Women's Top 20 after Round 3, I thought - who? Never heard of her, who the heck is this? So I did a little digging. (Photo: Pia Cramling [left] and Narmin Kazimova [right], Round 3 - Narmin drew with Cramling in this Round.) There isn't much information available on Narmin - yet. I expect that if she keeps playing chess the way she played at the 2008 European Individual Women's Chess Championship, she'll attract a lot of attention!

My impression is that this young lady (born 1993) is a real firecracker. She has few draws in her scant history of events - she evidently goes for broke in every game (a girl after my own heart). But, to be fair, the evidence is hardly what I would call conclusive. There's not much of a FIDE record, darlings, and she's only 15 (or maybe she's still 14, and will turn 15 later in the year - I could not find an exact birthdate).

Here is what I learned from the FIDE website:

Narmin's first recorded FIDE games were in the January, 2006 ratings period – a late report from the 2004 World Youth Chess Championships in which Narmin played in the Girls U-12 Section earning 1.0 in 4 games and had no ratings change.

The next activity was a year later, in the January, 2007 ratings period, when she played a total of 19 games in 3 events and had no ratings change.

In the April, 2007 ratings period, Narmin played in one event – the Azerbaijan Women’s Championship (14 players), where she finished in 12th place with 4.0/13 and gained 44.75 ratings points.

There was no further recorded FIDE activity until the relative explosion in the January and April, 2008 ratings periods. From October, 2007 through March, 2008, Narmin added 166 ELO points to her rating:

JANUARY 2008 RATINGS PERIOD:
2007 World Youth Chess Championships
Start 11/18/07
108 players in her group
22^nd, 5.5/9 (1 draw, 5 wins, 3 losses)
Ratings change: +42

Total ratings increase this period: 42.0

APRIL 2008 RATINGS PERIOD:
XVIII Cup of Baku
A Group
Start 10/15/07
66 players
23rd, 3.0/7 (2 draws, 2 wins, and 3 losses)
Ratings change: +26.85

2007 Baku Team Championship
Start 12/10/07
2.0/4 (2 draws, 1 win, 1 loss)
Ratings change: +16.20

2008 Azerbaijan Women’s Championship
Start 1/7/08
11 players
2nd, 7.5/11 (1 draw, 7 wins, 3 losses)
Ratings change: +64.65

2008 Azerbaijan Juniors Championship
(Girls U-20)
Start 3/2/08
8 players
2nd, 3.5/6 (1 draw, 3 wins, 2 losses)
Ratings change: +17.10

Total ratings increase this period: 124.8

Here are the results of Narmin's games in the 2008 European Individual Chess Championships:

Round 1: 147 Kazimova 1.0 (B, defeated WFM Ekaterina Akatova RUS 2320)
Round 2: 15 Kazimova 2.0 (W, defeated WGM Baira Kovanova Baira (RUS 2372)
Round 3: 9 Kazimova 2.5 (B, drew with GM Pia Cramling SWE 2539) (Cramling is the highest rated female in the tournament)
Round 4: 3 Kazimova 3.5 (W, defeated WGM Salome Melia GEO 2413)
Round 5: 14 Kazimova 3.5 (B, lost to IM Victoria Cmilyte LTH 2466)
Round 6: 39 Kazimova 3.5.(W, lost to IM Monika Socko POL 2505)
Round 7: 69 Kazimova 3.5 (B, lost to IM Sopio Gvetadze GEO 2350)
Round 8: 100 Kazimova 3.5 (W, lost to WGM Anna Sharevich BLR 2311)
Round 9: 94 Kazimova 4.0 (B, draw with WGM Marina Makropoulou GRE 2254)
Round 10: 72 Kazimova 5.0 (W, defeated WIM Natalija Popova BLR 2239)
Round 11: 96 Kazimova 5.0 (B, loss to FM Petra Schuurman NED 2295)

Through Round 4 of the European Individual Championship, Narmin was playing unconscious! She was in THIRD place after Round 4!!! She hit a wall (a crisis of confidence???) in the next 4 games, and then regained her equalibrium in Rounds 9 through 11 - and perhaps learned the art of the draw (which I'm theoretically against, but in reality, well...)

This is one young player I'm going to keep an eye on - and I hope you do, too. Oh - did I mention - Narmin gained 57 ELO points for this performance, and I believe (under the Regulations) she also won some Euros (perhaps 800 E) for the spread between her ELO and her Performance Rating. I checked tonight but the official website had not yet reported on these details. I hope they do eventually!

There's much more news at Chess Femme News and the Goddesschess Blog - I couldn't possibly squeeze everything into the column this month, there was just so much going on. I'm not very happy with this month's column but time and space constraints, drat! How did Alisa Melekhina do in the 10th NA FIDE Open? Did the special coaching pay off and did Irine Kharisma Sukandar earn her third WGM norm in the Japfa WGM Tournament? It's not even summer yet - eek! Things get really hot on the European circuit with all of those huge opens in which at least a few chess femme play. Stay tuned!

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

Archives
January 2008
February 2008
March 2008
April 2008

"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!