U.S. Women's Chess Championship 2009

The 2009 U.S. Women's Chess Championship will be held from October 3 through 13 at the sparkling, new Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, which opened in July 2008. The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis also was the site of the 2009 U.S. Chess Championship, which took place from May 7 through 17 and was won by Hikaru Nakamura.

The U.S. Women's Chess Championship dates back to 1937. The tournament is a 9-round event using the Round Robin pairing system, in which every player plays every other player and the highest score wins. Time controls will be the classical 40 moves in two hours, with the remaining moves in one hour. There will also be a 5-second increment per move.

The championship will have a purse of $64,000, with $15,000 awarded to the winner, the highest first prize in its history. In case of even scores, prize funds will be evenly divided between winners.

"We are delighted to have the opportunity to host this major event in the world of competitive chess," said Rex Sinquefield, a retired investment fund manager who founded the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. "We are honored and most fortunate to serve as the official site in 2009 of two of the premier chess championships."

Steve Goldberg of the United States Chess Federation (USCF) Online calls the new St. Louis club "certainly one of the most impressive chess centers" in the country. While serving as host club for the U.S. Women's Chess Championship and the U.S. Chess Championship, Sinquefield notes that "it is the goal of the Chess Club to encourage all of St. Louis' young people to learn chess. We believe that bringing the best chess players in the country to our city will help achieve that goal."

The players of this tournament are:

Anna Zatonskih
Irina Krush
Rusadan Goletiani
Camilla Baginskaite
Sabina-Francesca Foisor
Tatev Abrahamyan
Alisa Melekhina
Iryna Zenyuk
Battsetseg Tsaagan
Yun Fan

It will be a very exciting event and I will keep you posted about the news and the results.

Posted by: Alexandra Kosteniuk

Women's World Chess Champion

www.chessblog.com