Today's Stars - Jovanka Eric and Monica Socko


Labels: Eric Jovana, European Women's Chess Championship, Monika Socko
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Alexandra Kosteniuk's CHESSBLOG.COMThe world's leading Women's Chess Blog, hosted by the Grandmaster
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Friday, March 12, 2010Today's Stars - Jovanka Eric and Monica Socko![]() of the 8th of March Women's Chess Tournament Hello everybody! Jovana Eric (on the photo below) is the winner of the 42nd annual 8th of March Women's Grandmasters Tournament that took place from March 3 to March 12, 2010 in Belgrade, Serbia. Margarita Voiska scored the same number of points as the winner - 6,5 but was second on tie-breaks. The bronze went to Grabuzova Tatiana from Russia. Here are two nice wins by the winner: White just played 14. Kh1, what is the best move for Black? [Event "42nd WGM"] [Site "Belgrade SRB"] [Date "2010.3.4"] [Round "2"] [White "Petrenko,S"] [Black "Eric,J"] [Result "0-1"] [Eco "B92"] [Annotator ""] [Source ""] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2 e5 7.Nb3 Be7 8.O-O O-O 9.f4 b5 10.Bf3 Bb7 11.a3 Nbd7 12.f5 Qc7 13.Qe2 Nc5 14.Kh1 Na4 15.Nd1 d5 16.Nf2 Rac8 17.c3 Qc4 18.Na5 Qxe2 19.Bxe2 Ba8 20.exd5 Bxd5 21.Bd1 Bd8 22.Nb3 Bb6 23.Nd2 e4 24.Nh3 e3 25.Nf3 Bc4 26.Re1 Ng4 27.b3 Nf2+ 28.Nxf2 exf2 29.bxc4 fxe1=Q+ 30.Nxe1 Nxc3 31.Bf3 Rxc4 32.Nc2 Ne2 33.Be3 Bxe3 34.Nxe3 Rc1+ 35.Rxc1 Nxc1 36.g4 Nd3 37.Nd5 Ne5 38.Be2 Rd8 0-1 Black just played 9. ... h6, what is the best continuation for White? [Event "42nd WGM"] [Site "Belgrade SRB"] [Date "2010.3.8"] [Round "6"] [White "Eric,J"] [Black "Petrovic,Mari"] [Result "1-0"] [Eco "B06"] 1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c6 4.Be3 d6 5.Qd2 Nd7 6.Nf3 Qa5 7.Bd3 Ngf6 8.O-O Ng4 9.Bg5 h6 10.Bxe7 Qc7 11.Bh4 Ngf6 12.e5 Nh7 13.exd6 Qb8 14.Qe3+ Kf8 15.Qe7+ Kg8 16.Bxg6 1-0 7 rounds have been played so far and Monica Socko (on the photo below playing White against Tatiana Kosintseva) is in the lead with 6 points out of 7. ![]() She is followed by Antoaneta Stefanova, Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant, Viktorija Cmilyte, Lilit Galojan, Pia Cramling and Yelena Dembo, all with 5,5 out of 7. Tomorrow, March 13, is a free day and on March 14 the tournament will continue with 4 more rounds to go. The shortest decisive game of the championship so far is the encounter between Aginian and Goslawska which lasted for only 16 moves: [Event "11th EICC Women"] [Site "Rijeka CRO"] [Date "2010.3.6"] [Round "1"] [White "Aginian,N"] [Black "Goslawska,C"] [Result "1-0"] [Eco "C66"] 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 d6 4.c3 Be6? 5.d4 Bd7 6.O-O Nf6 7.Re1 g6 8.Nbd2 exd4? 9.cxd4 Bg7 10.e5 dxe5 11.dxe5 Nd5 12.Ne4 Nde7?? 13.Nf6+ Bxf6 14.exf6 Be6 15.Qxd8+ Rxd8 16.fxe7 1-0 The longest game has been the game between Baira Kovanova and Monica Socko which lasted for 129 moves: [Event "11th EICC Women"] [Site "Rijeka CRO"] [Date "2010.3.8"] [Round "3"] [White "Kovanova,B"] [Black "Socko,M"] [Result "0-1"] [Eco "B30"] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 4.Bxc6 bxc6 5.O-O Ne7 6.d3 Ng6 7.Nc3 d5 8.b3 Bd6 9.Ba3 O-O 10.Re1 f6 11.Na4 Qe7 12.Qd2 Rb8 13.c4 e5 14.h3 Nf4 15.exd5 Qf7 16.Bxc5 Bxc5 17.Nxc5 Bxh3 18.g3 cxd5 19.d4 Qh5 20.Nh2 Rbd8 21.dxe5 fxe5 22.Qe3 Rde8 23.gxf4 Rxf4 24.Kh1 Bg4 25.Kg2 Ref8 26.Nd3 Bf3+ 27.Nxf3 Qg4+ 28.Kf1 Qh3+ 29.Ke2 Rxf3 30.Qxa7 Rxd3 31.Rg1 Qf3+ 32.Kf1 g6 33.Qb6 Qh3+ 34.Ke1 Qf5 35.cxd5 Rxd5 36.Rc1 Rd4 37.Rg2 Rh4 38.Rg1 Rh2 39.Rc2 Qxc2 40.Qe6+ Rf7 41.Qe8+ Kg7 42.Qxe5+ Rf6 43.Qe7+ Rf7 44.Qe5+ Kf8 45.Qb8+ Ke7 46.Qxh2 Qb1+ 47.Ke2 Qxa2+ 48.Kf1 Qb1+ 49.Kg2 Qe4+ 50.Kf1 Kf8 51.Qd6+ Re7 52.Qd1 Kf7 53.Qg4 Qd3+ 54.Kg2 Qxb3 55.Rc1 Qd5+ 56.Qf3+ Qxf3+ 57.Kxf3 h5 58.Kg3 Kf6 59.Rc5 Re5 60.Rc6+ Kf5 61.Rc8 Ra5 62.f3 Kg5 63.Rc4 Rf5 64.f4+ Kh6 65.Rc3 Rd5 66.Rb3 Kg7 67.Ra3 Kf6 68.Rb3 Kf5 69.Ra3 Ke4 70.Ra6 Rd3+ 71.Kg2 Kf5 72.Kh2 Rf3 73.Kg2 Rxf4 74.Kg3 Re4 75.Ra5+ Re5 76.Ra8 Re3+ 77.Kg2 g5 78.Ra2 g4 79.Ra8 h4 80.Rf8+ Ke4 81.Re8+ Kd3 82.Rg8 Rg3+ 83.Kf2 Rf3+ 84.Kg1 g3 85.Rh8 Rf4 86.Kg2 Ke3 87.Re8+ Re4 88.Rf8 Rd4 89.Kh3 Rf4 90.Ra8 Rd4 91.Re8+ Kf2 92.Rf8+ Ke3 93.Re8+ Kd3 94.Rg8 Re4 95.Rf8 Re1 96.Rd8+ Ke2 97.Kg2 Ke3 98.Re8+ Kd2 99.Rd8+ Kc3 100.Rc8+ Kd4 101.Rd8+ Kc5 102.Rd2 Re4 103.Kh3 Rd4 104.Re2 Kd5 105.Re8 Re4 106.Rd8+ Ke5 107.Re8+ Kf5 108.Ra8 Kf6 109.Ra2 Rf4 110.Ra6+ Kg5 111.Ra5+ Rf5 112.Ra4 Rf4 113.Ra5+ Kf6 114.Ra6+ Ke5 115.Ra5+ Kd6 116.Ra6+ Kc5 117.Ra2 Kb4 118.Re2 Kc3 119.Ra2 Rd4 120.Ra3+ Kd2 121.Ra8 Ke3 122.Re8+ Kf3 123.Rf8+ Rf4 124.Ra8 Kf2 125.Ra4 Rf3 126.Ra2+ Kg1 127.Ra1+ Rf1 128.Ra2 Kh1 129.Rg2 Rf2 0-1 If you want to watch the games interactively, the best way to do so is to COPY the moves (in the case above 1. e4 c5 etc.) and PASTE them in my PGN PLAYER, then you'll be able to play the games on-screen. Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Labels: Eric Jovana, European Women's Chess Championship, Monika Socko Thursday, March 11, 2010Chess Diva Haiti FundraiserYou’re invited to the “Chess Diva” Chess-Haiti Fundraiser! Nationally ranked chess players Barbara and Lauren Goodkind, producers of the award winning local access TV show, “Chess Diva” will play 5 minute blitz games with the public. Non chess players will find it entertaining to watch! Parents, bring your kids!
Suggested donation per game is $5.
When: Saturday and Sunday, March 20th and 21st, 10 am to 4:30 pm
Where: Lytton Plaza, 202 University Ave, Palo Alto, CA. (next to Pizza My Heart)
All proceeds will go to UNICEF. ![]() Lauren and Barbara Goodkind, the producers of "Chess Diva"
Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Tuesday, March 9, 2010Chess Olympiad 2012 Logo and History![]() Hi everybody! I just got back from Colombia and am preparing a post about it for you. Before that, I'd like to share the following with you, about the Chess Olympiads: The organizers of the 40th Chess Olympiad which will take place in 2012 in Istanbul, invite you till the 31st of March to vote for your favorite logo of the event, here. The Chess Olympiad is a very special event. A tournament where one can really feel the moto of the FIDE - Gens Una Sumus! A little bit of history about the Chess Olympiads: The first world team competition took place in Paris in 1924 and was reported as the 'Chess Olympic Games.' It is not, however, counted as one of the official 'Chess Olympiads'; on the one hand it was not organised by FIDE, while on the other the method of scoring was different from that worked out later. The year 1924 is a milestone in chess history not so much because of this competition but because it saw the formation of the International Chess Federation (Federation Internationale des Echecs) by the players present in Paris. The first President of FIDE, Dr Rueb, of Holland, was also elected in Paris, and for a quarter of a century he fulfilled this important office with great skill and diplomacy. In 1927, representatives from sixteen countries assembled in London to take part in the first of the series of international team competitions which have become known as Chess Olympiads. The naming of FIDE's team championship as the "Chess Olympiad" is of historical origin and implies no connection between this event and the Olympic Games, which means that, unfortunately, chess Olympiad medals are not Olympic medals, and a clear distinction should be made about it. Therefore it is misleading and untrue to call the medals earned in chess Olympiads as "Olympic". In the first three Olympiads the board order of the players was not fixed and therefore was not necessarily identical with their strength. But since 1931 it has been the rule that the playing order submitted with the entry must be adhered to throughout the competition. If a player is rested, those below him have to play a board higher. The first women's chess olympiad has been held in 1957, and from 1972 it takes place every two years together with the men's chess olympiad. The full table of the men's and women's olympiads you can find on the olimpbase.org The 2008 Olympiad was held in Dresden, Germany. The 2010 Olympiad is going to be held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia in September this year. The 2012 Olympiad is going to be held in Istanbul, Turkey. There is already a bid for the 2014 Olympiad by Tromso, Norway. The host for the 2014 Olympiad will be decided during the General Assembly of FIDE in Khanty-Mansiysk this year. I already took part in 5 Olympiads. In 1998 I took part in my first ever Olympiad which took place in Elista, Russia. I played for the Russia-3 team which was also called the team of Kalmykia. Our team was seeded 33rd at the beginning of the event but we managed to do very well and at the end shared 6-9th places. I scored 10 out of 13 and took the silver medal on my board. In 2002 I played in my second Olympiad but it was my first Olympiad for the national team of Russia. Our team took silver medals, behind the Chinese women. In 2004 in my third Olympiad, I played for the first time on the first board. I met over the board against 3 former (Xie Jun, Maia Chiburdanidze, Susan Polgar) and one reigning (at that time) World Champions (Antoaneta Stefanova) and lead my team to the bronze medals. In 2006 in Turin I played once again on the first board for Russia and this time we took silver medals behind the team of Ukraine. In 2008 in Dresden I played on the first board for Russia once again. For the first time since the Olympiad in Moscow in 1994 our women's Russian team didn't take medals. We shared the third place but was fourth on tie-breaks. So this year we will try to do our best in Khanty-Mansiysk and I'm sure it will be a great event. ![]() But for the moment go to the official web-site of the 2012 Chess Olympiad in Istanbul and vote for the logo you like most. Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Labels: Chess Olympiad Saturday, March 6, 2010Alexandra teaches Chess CD-ROM PC/Mac Hello everybody!Everyday I get several emails from parents asking me what is the best way to introduce chess to theirs kids. How to make it fun and attract children to this wise game? My answer is try to make the first steps as cool as possible. In order to make kids interested, parents should create challenges, games, puzzles, everything that will make kids want to learn more about chess. Being a chess educator as well as a teacher myself, I'm constantly looking for new and interactive ways to attract more children to this wonderful game. That's why some time ago I published a special interactive chess CD for kids - "Alexandra Teaches Chess" both for PC's and for Macs (both versions on the same CD). It's a fun and fascinating game for children which leads them from the very first steps on the chess board to the first moves and games that they will be able to play after going over this CD. Below you will see one of the emails and a lovely photo of a very cute girl playing my CD-game. It made me very happy: Below is an email which I recently got:
So if you'd like to introduce your child to the wonderful game of chess, I can recommend to buy my "Alexandra Teaches Chess" PC/Mac Interactive CD. Your child is guaranteed to have many hours of fun learning chess. Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Labels: ATC March 8 International Women's Day![]() Hello everybody! March 8 is a big holiday in Russia. It is called the International Women's Day. If you come to Russia on the 8th of March then you will see that almost every man is bringing flowers (mostly mimosas) to his loved ones. Everybody congratulates women, girls, moms. I would also like to congratulate women's chess players with this wonderful day! Let me wish all of us happiness and love! Let us wish that our children will be happy and healthy and we always have loved ones next to us. What is the best way to celebrate this special day? To organize a chess tournament, of course! A women's chess tournament to be precise. That's probably why, every year since 1965 in March there is a very strong women's international chess tournament. The 42nd Women's International 8th of March Tournament is taking place right now in Belgrade, Serbia. The history of this tournament is fascinating: The First Women's International March 8 Tournament was organized between March 8 and 24, 1965, in honour of The International Women's Day - March 8. The International March 8 Tournaments have become a tradition in Belgrade, and with the exception of 1980 and 1984, have been held every year. In 1980, the tournament wasn't held at all due to financial reasons, and in 1984, it was played according to the Swiss system, but only with the participion of local players. Almost all the leading women chess players have competed in the March 8 Tournaments, including many world champions. The legendary Nona Gaprindashvilli was the seven-times winner and in 1971 she scored 100% - 13 points in 13 games! Today the organizer of the tournament, the Belgrade Chess Association, tried to save tradition of the tournament and has managed to do that. This year, the 42nd International Women's Grandmaster Chess Tournament is being held from the 3rd to the 11th of March. Below is the list of the winners of the Tournament so far: 1. 1965 E. Bilek 2. 1966 N. Gaprindashvili i A. Nicolau 3. 1967 T.Zatulovskaya 4. 1968 N.Gaprindashvili 5. 1969 N.Aleksandria 6. 1970 A.Kushner 7. 1971 N.Gaprindashvili 8. 1972 A.Nicolau / M.Lazarevic 9. 1973 A.Nicolau 10. 1974 N.Gaprindashvili 11. 1975 Z.Veroci / V.Kozlovska / A.Georgieva 12. 1976 N.Gaprindashvili 13. 1977 Z.Veroci / I.Levitina 14. 1978 N. Gaprindashvili 15. 1979 N.Aleksandria 16. 1981 LJ. Zajceva 17. 1982 E.Akhmilovskaya 18. 1983 Z.Veroci 19. 1985 S.Matveeva 20. 1986 N.Gurieli 21. 1987 M.Litinska / S.Matveeva 22. 1989 Z.Veroci 23. 1990 N.Gurieli / N. Bojkovic/ M.Voiska 24. 1991 N.Gaprindashvili 25. 1992 M.Chiburdanidze 26. 1993 I. Umanskaia 27. 1994 A.Galjamova 28. 1995 S.Prudnikova 29. 1996 M.Chiburdanidze 30. 1997 A.Benderac 31. 1998 N.Zhukova 32. 1999 G. Markovic 33. 2000 E.Kovalevskaya 34. 2001 I.Chelushkina 35. 2002 I.Chelushkina 36. 2003 S.Prudnikova 37. 2005 LJ.Drljevic / I.Chelushkina / G.Olarasu / S.Petrenko 38. 2006 S.Petrenko 39. 2007 S.Petrenko 40. 2008 N.Bojkovic 41. 2009 I.Čoluškina 5 rounds have been played so far and Margarita Voiska from Bulgaria is in the lead right now with 4 points out of 5. You can follow how is it going on the official web-site, here. Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Angora WGM Chess Tournament 2010![]() Turkish women's team It organizes many interesting and important chess events every year. From different world and European youth championships to the women's and men's world chess championships. For example, the year 2010 started with the world team chess championship in Bursa and will end with the women's world chess championship in Ankara. There will be even more events in 2011, including the Women's European Chess Championship. For the talented turkish chess players, the TCF organizes year-round trainings with world-renowned trainers such as Adrian Mikhalchishin, Mikhail Gurevich and others. The results can already be seen. The latest youth world and European chess championships brought many medals to Turkey by young players in several age categories. During my visit to Bursa in January I met two 8-years old girls who won several tournaments in their age-category. They said that they have special chess trainings up to 30 hours per week. From February 14 to February 20, 2010 the international WGM Angora Chess Tournament took place in Ankara. It was organized by the Turkish Chess Federation in the Nevzat Süer hall in the New Chess Federation Center. There were two teams (A - 5 foreign players and B - 5 Turkish players). The participants were IM(WGM) Angela Borsuk, IM(WGM) Sopio Gvetadze, WGM Anna Burtasova, WGM Anastasia Karlovich, WIM Nargiz Umudova, WIM Betul Cemre Yildiz, WIM Kubra Ozturk, Kaya Emel, Sop Selen and Menzi Ezgi. The tournament was played using the Double Scheveningen System with 10 rounds. One of the participants of this event - Anastasia Karlovich wrote a very interesting article about this tournament with the photos of the event, you can read it on chessbase.com. Here is one upset by the Turkish chess player Betul Cemre Yildiz (2244) over the WGM from Georgia Sopio Gvetadze (2342). Black just played 39. ... Bd8, White to move. Here is the PGN of the game. If you'd like to use it in your chess software, just copy the text characters from [Event... down to the result of the game 1-0 save the file as text and change the extension to .pgn then you will be able to successfully open it and view the game with your favorite chess database software! [Event "Angora Chess Tournaments-WGM"] [Site "Ankara"] [Date "2010.2.17"] [Round "5.11"] [White "Yildiz, Betul Cemre"] [Black "Gvetadze, Sopio"] [Result "1-0"] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Bd3 Be7 6.c4 O-O 7.Nc3 d6 8.O-O a6 9.Be3 Qc7 10.Rc1 b6 11.f3 Bb7 12.Qd2 Nbd7 13.Rfd1 Rac8 14.Bf1 Qb8 15.b3 Bd8 16.g4 Kh8 17.Qf2 Bc7 18.Qh4 Ne5 19.Qh3 Ng6 20.g5 Nd7 21.Nde2 Rce8 22.f4 Nc5 23.f5 Ne5 24.Bg2 Qa8 25.Rd4 Ncd7 26.Nf4 Bc8 27.g6 Nf6 28.gxf7 Rxf7 29.fxe6 Rff8 30.Ncd5 Bd8 31.Rf1 Nfg4 32.Rdd1 Qb7 33.Bd4 b5 34.c5 dxc5 35.Bxc5 Rg8 36.Bd4 Bf6 37.Rc1 Bg5 38.Rc7 Qa8 39.Qh5 Bd8 40.Rxg7 Rxg7 41.Qxe8+ Rg8 42.Qh5 Rg5 43.e7 Bxe7 44.Qe8+ Rg8 45.Qxe7 Qb8 46.Nf6 Bf5 47.Nxg8 1-0 Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Izvestia Chess Puzzle Contest Winners![]() Photo courtesy Vladimir Suvorov/"Izvestia" Hello everybody! A few posts ago I let you know about the Puzzle Contest in the Russian newspaper "Izvestia". On March 3 the winners of this contest were announced and the solutions for the Puzzles#5 and #6 were posted: Puzzle #5. A. Kosteniuk, 2009, White to move and make a draw. SOLUTION: 1. b8Q h1Q 2.Kd4+! Rс1 3.Qg3+ Kh5 4.Qh3+ Kg5 (4. .. Qh3 stalemate) 5. Qg3+ Kh6 6. Qh3+ Kg7 7. Qd7+ Кf8 8.Qd8+ Kh7 9.Qd7+ Kh6 10.Qh3+ Kg5 11. Qg3+ Kf5 12.Qh3+ Kf4 13.Qh4+ Kf3! 14.Qf4+ Kg2 15.Qg4+ Kf2 16. Qh4+ Ke2 17.Qf2+ Kd1 18.Qd2+ Kd2 stalemate Puzzle #6, О.Pervakov, 2008, White to move and win. SOLUTION: 1.с3! 1.cb? doesn't win in view of Kh6! 2.Rg6+ Qg6 3.Bg6 Kg6 4.b4 Kf6 5.Kd2 Ke7 6.Ke3 Kd7 7.Ke4 Kc7 8.Kf5 Kb6 with a draw 1. ... b2+ 2.Kb2 Kh6! (2. ... Kh8 3.Rg8+!), Now doesn't win 3.Bd3? in view of Qа4! 4.Rg6+ Kh7 5.Rg4+ e4! 6.Rе4 Qd1! 7.Bc2 Qg1! 8.Rg4+ Kh8! (9. ... Kh6? 10.Rg6+!) 9.Rg1 stalemate The correct continuation is 3.Bс2!! Qс4! (3. ... Qd5 4.Rg6+ Kh7 5.Rd6+ winning the Queen and the game) 4.Rg6+ Кh7 5.Rg4+ e4! 6.Rе4 Qс7! 7.Re7+ Kh6 8.Rh7+! - winning I hope you enjoyed solving these puzzles and can assure you that daily solving of different tactical and endgame problems and puzzles will increase you level of chess. Solve many puzzles on my CHESS KILLER TIPS podcast page. Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion Thursday, March 4, 2010European Chess Championship 2010![]() Hello everybody! Tomorrow, March 6, 2010, the very strong European Women's Chess Championship will start in Rijeka, Croatia. This championship is a qualification tournament for the Women's World Chess Championship 2012. For that reason, this year the championship has attracted most of the strongest women chess players in Europe who would like to qualify for next world championship cycle. The reigning European champion right now is Tatiana Kosintseva who won the European championship 2009 in Saint-Petersburg in March last year. The full starting list of the European chess championship 2010 are, in order of rating:
The complete statistics during the tournament can be found here. The games LIVE can be found on the official web-site of the organizers, here. I'm sure it will be a very exciting event and I will keep you posted about how the tournament goes. Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk Women's World Chess Champion |