Natalia Zhukova and Michael Adams topped their categories
The Gibraltar Gibtelecom Chess Masters has its 2010 winners!
In the overall category, 9 (male) players end the tournament with 7.5 out of 10, but the winner after tie-break is Michael Adams, congratulations to Michael for a deserved win!
Right after that group, in the 7 points group are the two top women of this competition, Natalia Zhukova and Humpy Koneru. Natalia gets the top women's prize thanks to her higher performance score, of 2686, quite impressive! My best wishes go to both ladies who have performances above 2650!
I shared the third women's prize, together with 10 other women, all with 6.5 out of 10, just one half point behind the top ladies, and 1 point behind the overall winners (ranking in order of performance):
Antoaneta Stefanova
Pia Cramling
Lela Javakhishvili
Alexandra Kosteniuk
Nana Dzagnidze
Dronavalli Harika
Viktorija Cmilyte
Deysi Cori
Eesha Karavade
Dana Reizniece
Joanna Dworakowska
Then come the group with 6.0/10:
Irina Krush
Jovanka Houska
Katrine Tjolsen
With 5.5/10:
Anna Zatonskih
Tania Sadchev
Elena Sedina
Anna Zozulia
Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant
Monica Calzetta
With 5.0/10:
Kruttika Nadig
Iva Videnova
Maria Schoene
4.5: Marina Martsynovskaya
4.0: Szilvia Lochte
3.5: Ingrid Carlsen
3.0: Erie Hansen
2.5: Caroline Jacobsen
2.0: Lovinia Chidi
1.5: Nadja Reci
0.0: Victoria Agdestein
0.0: Margrethe Grodas
Thanks to the organizer for a wonderful hard-fought tournament, which I am sure will keep attracting in the next years the strongest women of the planet!
My last game was very hard fought, but after 6.5 hours I finally managed to win it, it's nice to finish a tournament on a positive note! :-)
Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk
Women's World Chess Champion
Imoressive result by Zhukova and Koneru, only 1/2 point behind the winners, and 11 women just behind, very high level of play, women are getting stronger. That would not have happened in opens 10 years ago.
ReplyDeleteHallo from Frustiente.Sunny day here in Athens.Very warm.First of all i want to congatulate you for the win.This win its not a chess win only but also a psychological one.By first sight it seems complicated but in my analysis i realized a social conclusion.you had to beat this guy twice in the chessboard,as a chess player and as a woman vs man too.Thats why this game is more as a psychological battle and less as a chess game.Bravo Alex because you don't fear at all and i hope your future opponents will be as this one,today.My point is that you can't underestimate the woman's world champion.As for the game now.
ReplyDelete21..Bf8!!(pressure on isolated a-pawn and a very good defense move,these 2-ways moves proove you are trully a champion)Check also 22..Bd6 23.Qf3 Bxe5 24.dxe5 Nd7(white is positional inferior with 2 double pawns on e-file)33.fxg7? is unclear 33..Qe2+ 34.Kg3 Qh5 49.f6+(he points to his f-passed pawn).Now instead of 50.Nc4(50.Nd3!?bxa3 51.f7 but also unclear)Ok now i hope you don't play again this cursed move,lol vs Zhukova 43.Bf8? and now 52..Bf8?also..Please forget the f8-square for your bishop,think it as a long journey to him,lol.you had the most easiest path to win with 52..Rxa3 53.Rf1 Rh3+ 54.Kg4 Rd3 maby you were in time trouble so with 53.Nc6 white equalizes.Many years ago i examined Capablanca games one by one.i found something very interesting and i want to share with you even thought all iam writing right now you probably know all of them and of course you know the chess much better than me because you are the champion,iam nothing but look what i found.Capablanca used a defense endgame system that consisted from his base piece,the king and his other pieces around the king but in a short distance very short.He didn't moved his pieces far away his defense system because he was too strong in calculating all the endgames posibilities with short distanced movements.Amazing.So this made him a very strong player because he was waiting the opponent's mistake and exploit it to his best.Alekhine won the championship against him because he complicated things and then their endgames needed also complicated moves for Capablanca,but he could play these anymore,cause he could use his famous defense system.Anyway the drawing line here for white survival,maby of course is 54.Nd4+ Kd7 55.Rxa3 Bxa3 56.Nxb5= instead he played 54.Rf1 meaning that he wanted the win underestimated the posibility of your passed pawns and your black squared bishop and now we see my previous comment why a man thinks that is better than a woman,wanted to beat a woman and forget that the woman is a chessplayer also and even more the world champion.Egoism is not a chess weapon.He follows the downpath with 56.Rd1??.white could not survived since the 54th move and the game finished to 71.Between these moves you have 2 relax and easiest lines but 60..Bb2 61.Rd7+ Kf6 Ne3 and 66..Rc3+?! 67.Kd2 Rc6 68.Ra7+ Kb6 69.Ra8+ Just different techniques i think for time economy.The important thing as you said is to consider the best objective plan.Thats all,Sorry if i was dizzing you and congratulations for your final position in tournament